NEW DELHI: The Centre is likely to grant one-year extension of service to Director of Intelligence Bureau Dineshwar Sharma who is superannuating on December 31.
Sharma who hails from Bihar and is a Kerala cadre Indian Police Service officer of 1979 batch has served long stint with the covert agency and has handled a host of responsibilities within the agency.
According to sources, the Government is considering a proposal to grant him an extension of service.
Sharma had personally supervised the operation against Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani whose liquidation by the security forces resulted in unrest in Jammu and Kashmir for months together.
During Sharma’s two years of stint at the top post, the IB has busted a number of espionage modules including the one at the Pakistani high commission here.
Sharma’s tenure also recorded unravelling of a number of modules related to international terror organisations like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. The Central and the State police agencies have so far arrested 68 Islamic State cadres from across the country following inputs from IB and thereby averted any terror strike. The violent activities of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Indian Mujahideen have also registered a significant decline in the last two years.
The post of the IB Director has a fixed tenure of two years from the date of joining. The DIB is the senior most IPS officer in the country and enjoys a four-star rank status as against other Director General rank officers who are accorded three-star rank.
Sharma will be the second IPS officer of a key Central agency to get an extension post-retirement with the DG NIA being the first to have been granted one-year extension of service twice.
A number of senior IPS officers, including a few in the IB were earlier in the fray for elevation to the top post.