But despite 14 days of extensive reporting on Sharma's sins, one question remains discreetly unasked: who played a Cesare Borgia to Sharma's Leonardo? In other words, who was his patron, the man -- or men -- who ensured that Sharma wasn't disturbed by mundane considerations such as the law?

The answer stares us in the face: politicians. But that is so generalised a term as to lose all meaning. It takes someone pretty high up in the hierarchy to extend an aegis over a man involved in the Bombay blasts case even after the policeintercepted calls made by Sharma to his associates in Dubai. The decision to leave Sharma alone could only be enforced by people in the highest level of government.

The investigators have been unnaturally coy about revealing the details of Sharma's statements under interrogation, but that needn't stop us from making an educated guess or two. If you trace his unsavoury career, it turns out that it really took off in the years after 1980 and extended right up to yesterday. No prizes for guessing which party was in power for the most part in that period, either directly or through offering support from outside.

I am reliably told that the Delhi police is almost embarrassed about the wealth of evidence at its disposal today. There are video tapes showing Sharma hobnobbing with as many as three former prime ministers. The names can't be given out, but when I speak of former' prime ministers, it is a job description that automatically rules out anyone in the BJP.

There is something quite insane about this.The Indian taxpayer foots a huge bill to protect the skins of each of these VVIPs, roughly Rs 5 crore every year per person, under the provisions of the SPG Act. The justification for this expenditure is that crooks must be kept away from our lords and masters. Yet they themselves evidently have no fears about being on backslapping terms with the likes of Sharma, RDX stash or no RDX stash. So why on earth are we being asked to empty our pockets for them?

At least one of the three men trusted Sharma so much that he was given one of the rarest of privileges in India -- unrestricted access to Race Course Road during his tenure. There are stringent security regulations abo-ut people visiting the official residence of the prime minister, but Sharma's car was waived through without any checks. (This, by the way, was a privilege shared by Chandraswami).

If you think those are absurd situations, chew over this: at one point, Sharma was granted "Y-Class security" by the Union Home Ministry. This means policemenwere assigned to protect Sharma from threats to his life, all of course at our expense.

To be fair, these prime ministers weren't the only ones who found Sharma a useful sort of chap to know. It has been hinted that a former Defence Minister was also an acquaintance. There are, in fact, two of them, both highly ambitious men. There is a former finance minister, who it seems took Sharma's help in running an export firm. And there is even an ambassador, quite an important one, who was seen receiving Sharma at his residence with a warmth usually reserved for Union ministers.

These -- and I have touched merely the tip of the iceberg -- were Sharma's patrons. But why did they shield him from the law so assiduously?

I don't know Sharma and have never had the privilege of visiting that famous house in Delhi's Mayfair Gard-ens. But I am reliably told that people didn't meet Sharma for the pleasure of his scintillating conversation or his engaging personality. (Even his crimes depended on brute force rather thanbra-ins.) Broadly speaking, there could have been two services that Sh-arma provided to his protectors high and low -- sex and money-laundering.

The first shouldn't concern us unless there was an element of coercion involved. (By the way, the prime minister and the home minister speak of making rape a capital crime; may one hope Sharma goes to trial after the new law is enacted?)

But the second crime is a different issue. Terrorism may be a fact of life given the reality of the Pakistani ISI's meddling, but I have a rooted objection to being blown up with RDX purchased with a politician's slush-funds, all taxpayers' money when you come to think of it!

Is there any good that can come out of this whole mess? Well, it has been said that there is nothing that men desire more than a second chance. And the Sharma investigation could be our second shot at cleaning up the Augean stables of Indian politics.

A little under three years ago, the convoluted Jain diary-hawala scandal finally made it to theheadlines. But nothing came of it for two reasons. The first was lack of proper evidence (perhaps a legal quibble). The second, more serious, reason was that the Narasimha Rao regime chose to make political capital out of it by trying to implicate the innocent along with the guilty.

The present government has scads of proof so that isn't a problem. But it is also bending over backward to eschew even the hint of a political vendetta. But you can carry a good intention too far. Is there any reason why we can't see those tapes of the political elite rubbing shoulders with Sharma?

Sharma, when you come down to it, owed little to the people of India at large. (Up to a fortnight ago, it seemed he wasn't answerable even to the law!) But politicians, especially those with SPG or Black Cat men around them must be answerable.

Romesh Sharma deserves to be crushed under the full weight of the law he mocked for so long. But let us not stop with him. His protectors, all those men who solemnly swore to uphold theConstitution, must be forced to stand in the dock along with Sharma. The hawala scam was a dropped catch; we must hope the current team does not repeat that error.