Ranchi/Patna, July 30: He's an IPS officer who is praised by the strangest of people, from a discredited Jharkhand politician who calls him " shuddh" and "nirdosh" to a professor from Bihar who says he did a good job as an SP when posted in Gaya in the late 1990s despite a very public scandal that time where the policeman allegedly used his influence to get his wife a university gold medal.

Yet, state ADG (Special Branch) Anurag Gupta, 51, is now a man forced to lie low, accused of trying to broker the Rajya Sabha vote of a woman Opposition MLA for the ruling dispensation. As Yogendra Sao, the husband of the MLA, went public with his alleged "sting" recordings of their purported chat on July 15, ADG Gupta became something of a hot potato for the police force as well as the Raghubar Das government.

He quietly applied for and got leave earlier this week as the Opposition went hammer and tongs on how the ruling party used the police to win votes for itself in the June 11 Rajya Sabha polls and Leader of the Opposition Hemant Soren demanded an FIR against the policeman for using "racial comments" in the purported CD recording of the alleged telephonic chat between Gupta and Sao.

In one stroke, the 1990 batch IPS, once praised as an excellent field officer, became an object of pity and derision in Jharkhand police.

Gupta wasn't available for comment. He hasn't been answering his phone ever since JVM chief Babulal Marandi made public the CD on July 15. On Wednesday, this correspondent visited his office at Jharkhand police headquarters and his official residence near Nepal House. But he wasn't there. Today his phone was out of reach too.

Senior officials of Jharkhand police conceded that the allegations against Gupta, which make him out to be a BJP broker, stooge or at best marketing manager, did put the credibility of the state police in a spot.

Gupta started well - in his late 20s, he was injured during an encounter with criminal gangs as Patna ASP - those were United Bihar days - but also gunned down five criminals for which he was decorated with a gallantry award.

But, controversy was not far behind. Posted as the SP of Motihari district in Bihar sometime between 1993 and 1995, he earned a bad name over an encounter after which then DIG R.L. Kanojia had written harshly about him over what was alleged to be a fake encounter.

"The case was handed over to CID and the matter was investigated by then SP (CID) R.K. Singh," remembered a retired IPS officer. His luck held, he got a clean chit.

But, Gupta might have started feeling invincible. Between 1995 and 1998, when Gupta was Gaya SP, his stint was marked by controversy over awarding an MA (history) degree to his wife Shikha from Magadh University, Bodhgaya. Shikha received a gold medal in her MA in 1996 even though she had not appeared in seven of the eight papers, which were ghost-written.

Her degree was cancelled after a Vigilance Bureau probe, at the behest of a PIL in Patna High Court, revealed the police-varsity nexus. Gupta was among the 10 persons named as accused in the FIR lodged by the Bureau. The case was later handed over to CID allegedly under political pressure. A senior IPS officer Manoje Nath, who retired as DG (home guards and fire services), was assigned to monitor the probe. But Gupta got some reprieve from the CID, which dropped his name from the final chargesheet.

Anand Shankar, another senior IPS officer who retired as Bihar DGP, had reportedly "helped" Gupta in the case. Gupta, who had arranged a law degree and a job as a guest lecturer for Shikha too, came out considerably besmirched from the whole episode.

Yet, he is not without his fans in Bihar. Recalled former DGP of Bihar Dhruv Prasad Ojha: "He (Gupta) was a good officer but his name was dragged into controversy over his wife's degree."

Agreed Sunil Singh, former president of postgraduate teachers association of Magadh University, "Gupta was a tough SP against criminals and Maoists in Gaya."

In 2000, when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar, Gupta, who was with the Special Protection Group on deputation at the PMO, was repatriated to Jharkhand.

He met Sao, a Barkagaon politician in Hazaribagh, around 2003, when he was Hazaribagh SP. Sao acted as Gupta's informer against rebels. Lore has it that Sao helped Gupta eliminate dreaded MCC rebel Nripendra Ganjhu in an inter-district police operation. Again, Gupta's star was on the rise.

As ADG (Special Branch) Gupta was again on a strong wicket. But, the problem is, as a senior policeman was blunt enough to say, "Gupta is among those who prostrate when asked to bend by those in power."

Sao did betray Gupta if the politician's recording turned out to be authentic, the policeman said. "But in that case what Gupta also did is also against our Lakshman rekha," he added.

Earlier this week, when The Telegraph asked state DGP D.K. Pandey for his comments on the Gupta episode, he kept quiet.

But, how could a canny, experienced policeman be so foolish as to trust Sao, a dubious politician who's been in enough trouble with his name cropping up in extortion rings, with such explosive conversations over phone, goes the incredulous refrain in Dhurwa police headquarters.

A retired IAS official said that he found Gupta getting swayed easily.

"In 2014, then DGP Rajiv Kumar had thrown a private party. Some of the guests were relaxing with drinks. Gupta was so carried away after a few drinks that he leaked the photographs of the private party to the media. Everyone, including then chief minister Hemant Soren and the police, was very uncomfortable," the official said.