A 30-year-old woman, who had filed a sexual assault case against her husband last year, has alleged that former officer Pradeep Sharma had pressured the MIDC police to exclude a stringent charge in the FIR. This was to help her husband who was the ‘collection agent’ of Sharma, once-famous encounter specialist.

The police added the more serious charge, Section 377 (unnatural offences) of the IPC, after Sharma was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for his alleged involvement in the Ambani bomb scare case. The woman  approached the NIA on Saturday alleging that her husband was working as a “collection agent” for Sharma.