CBI report bares Bhullar aide’s corrupt dealings with top officers, 50 under lens

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has uncovered a sprawling “fixer network” allegedly run by Kirshanu Sharda, the middleman of arrested and suspended Punjab DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar, exposing deep-rooted links with senior IAS and IPS officers as well as political aides. The stunning revelation has sent tremors through Punjab’s corridors of power.Both Bhullar and Sharda were arrested in a Rs 5-lakh bribery trap case in Chandigarh on October 16.

According to the CBI’s latest progress report submitted before the Special CBI Court in Chandigarh, the agency has found extensive digital evidence from Sharda’s seized mobile phones and electronic devices, revealing his role as a conduit in “corrupt dealings involving multiple senior public servants”.

The data, the report says, points to his direct involvement in influencing investigations, orchestrating transfers and postings, facilitating arms licences, and even manipulating registration and cancellation of FIRs.

The court, while extending Sharda’s police custody for four days after a previous nine-day remand, noted that the CBI had “laid hand on material evidence” showing he amassed huge gold jewellery, substantial cash deposits and assets in his and his wife Honey Sharma’s names during the past two years, strongly indicating proceeds of corruption.

“His further interrogation is necessitated in view of the nature and gravity of the offence to unearth the broader conspiracy, if any,” observed Special CBI Judge Bhawna Jain in her order.

The CBI report said the agency was now confronting Sharda with the digital data extracted from his devices and with Bhullar, who has also been under CBI custody since November 1.

The duo is being grilled face to face daily to piece together financial trails and conversations linking the network to bureaucrats, police officers and private players.

Investigators believe the evidence so far has only scratched the surface of a “systemic web of corruption”.

The CBI has reportedly compiled a list of over 50 senior Punjab bureaucrats and officers whose names have surfaced during Sharda’s sustained interrogation. His communication, the agency claims, shows “a pattern of transactional favours” in exchange for postings, protection and policy manipulation. The probe has also traced the purchase of high-value gold jewellery and other luxury assets through jewellers allegedly used to launder bribe money.

Both Bhullar and Sharda are in CBI custody until November 11 and 10, respectively. Officials said the confrontation between the two has already yielded critical leads about monthly illegal payoffs and attempted influence over judicial orders, corroborated through recovered chats and financial data.

As the CBI widens its net, the revelations threaten to open one of Punjab’s most explosive corruption scandals in recent memory — with digital evidence now laying bare what insiders describe as “a well-oiled network of favours, money, and power”.