Mumbai Oct 31 (IANS) Maharashtra Director-General of Police (DGP) S.S. Virk retired from service here Saturday.
Virk served as a DGP in two states — Punjab and Maharashtra.

Interacting with the media shortly before he bowed out Saturday evening, Virk commended the Maharashtra and Mumbai police for doing their job well.

“The state and city police are in a better state of preparedness to tackle any kind of challenges from any quarters,” he observed.

Giving full marks to Mumbai Police, Virk said that it did “an excellent job” while responding to the Nov 26 terror attacks last year.

Earlier during his career while stationed in Punjab, Virk shot to fame as part of the core team headed by former top cop K.P.S. Gill which is credited with wiping out terrorism from the state.

Virk was appointed DGP March 13 this year and got an extension of three months in July.

In fact, Virk had moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) seeking a fixed tenure of two years for the post of DGP as per a Supreme Court ruling on police reforms in a case.

However, his plea was rejected by the CAT in a ruling earlier this week.

Having an impressive track record, Virk had even suffered an AK-47 bullet injury on his jaw when he was deputy inspector general (DIG) of police during Operation Black Thunder in Punjab.

His heroics even found a mention in BBC’s former journalist Mark Tully’s book, “No Full Stops in India”.

But in an embarrassing blot on his career, Virk, belonging to the Maharashtra cadre, was arrested briefly by the Punjab police in a case pertaining to owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income in 2007.

DGP (Anti-Corruption Bureau) A.N Roy will be the acting DGP till further orders.