Rahul Sharma is an ex Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Gujarat cadre turned practicing lawyer with Gujarat High Court. He was inducted into the service in 1992. He played a crucial role in policing operations during the 2002 Gujarat riots. He was seconded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2004, and served there for the next three years. Later, he served as the DIG (armed unit) at Rajkot, Gujarat until seeking voluntary retirement from active service in 2015. Personal life Rahul Sharma is a 1992 Gujarat cadre ex-IPS officer. He received a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) in 1987. He also has a degree in law. Followed by the untimely death of his wife in 2013, he took retirement from the police service and started serving as a lawyer at Gujarat High Court. 2002 Gujarat riots Bhavnagar When the 2002 Gujarat riots broke out on 28 February 2002, Sharma was the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Bhavnagar district, heading a 180-strong police force. He became widely known as one of the few district police chiefs to have "responded vigorously" to control the violence. On the third day of the violence (2 March), a mob of about 10,000 people tried to set fire to a madrasa on the outskirts of Bhavnagar, a residential Muslim school sheltering 400 students. Sharma issued orders to open fire on the mob, causing injuries and some fatalities, thereby dispersing the mob and averting a disaster. Subsequently, he transferred the children to a safer location inside the city. His timely action was praised by L. K. Advani, the then Union Home Minister, in India's Parliament as well as in his autobiography. On the other hand, Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, was angry, according to Kingshuk Nag, complaining that he was "trying to seek cheap publicity and act like a hero." Sharma's actions also angered the state home minister Gordhan Zadafia, who is reported to have said that "the ratio of deaths" due to police firing was "not proper," meaning that more Hindus than Muslims died due to police firing in Bhavnagar. Sharma also refused to release 21 miscreants arrested for attack on a mosque, as requested by BJP politicians. Local Gujarati newspapers complained that Hindus were not able to avenge the Godhra train burning. Sharma was transferred out of field operations