on 24 March and posted as the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in Ahmedabad's control room. Crime Branch and Call Data Records In his new role as the deputy commissioner in Ahmedabad, Sharma was asked to assist the Crime Branch of Ahmedabad in investigating the Gulberg Society and Naroda Patiya cases. Noting the allegations of complicity by police officers and political leaders in the riots, he suggested that their mobile phone records be examined to ascertain their movements. Accordingly, mobile phone 'call data records' (CDR) were requested from the local phone companies Idea Cellular and Vodafone India. The Crime Branch chief, P. P. Pandey, asked Sharma to process the data himself since it was his idea, which required him to copy the data onto his home computer. Before he could complete the processing, Sharma was transferred out of his post again, in early July. He said that he handed over the CD's containing the data to Pandey through a messenger, but they became untraceable afterwards. Several years after the event, the Gujarat government claimed that Sharma did not submit the CDs and charged him with misconduct. Since Sharma had a copy of the data on his home computer, he was able to copy it to CD's and submit it to the Nanavati-Shah commission and the Banerjee Committee in 2004, and the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team later in 2008. The advocate Mukul Sinha representing Jan Sangharsh Manch asked for a copy of the CD from the Banerjee Committee and received it. This enabled lawyers, activists and victims to cite the data, implicating a number of political leaders and police officers, including Maya Kodnani, Jaideep Patel, Babu Bajrangi, police inspector K. K. Mysorewala and senior police officers M. K. Tandon and P. B. Gondia. Calls were also found to have been exchanged with the Home Minister Gordhan Zadafia and the Chief Minister's office in the midst of riots. But the Special Investigation Team did not take action against the senior police officers and politicians. Nanavati Commission Report The Nanavati-Shah commission report on the riots has raised a finger of suspicion over the role of Rahul Sharma (among others) in the riots. Activism Sharma along with Jan Sangharsh Manch organized a rally for civil rights for Dalits in general and to protest the flogging of Dalit youths at Una, Gujarat in particular in August 2016. Recognition In 2012, Sharma was awarded the