The newly appointed Director General of Police of Maharashtra S S Virk, who was once removed by the Election Commission as Punjab police chief, will be kept off election duty, the central poll body said on Sunday.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami [Images] told reporters that the EC decision has been communicated to the Maharashtra government. The state government may be at liberty to decide on the appointment of Virk as the state police chief but the EC would not like him to handle the election duties, he said.

Gopalaswami was asked how Virk could be appointed as the Maharashtra DGP while he was once removed by the EC as the Punjab police chief. Observing that Virk's case was "quite complicated", he said that the Commission wanted to make a clear distinction in this particular case. He said keeping in view the earlier order of the Commission to remove him from the post of Punjab DGP, the commission did not want to come in the way of the decision of the Maharashtra government.

"As far as we are concerned, we will be satisfied with the fact that he will not handle elections.Therefore, we made it very clear to the state government while you may be at liberty to decide on the issue as per court orders, we won't want him to handle elections," Gopalaswami said. Virk, a 1970 batch IPS officer, was appointed the DGP last Friday to succeed A N Roy, whose appointment was set aside by the Bombay High Court on February 5. Virk was arrested and jailed in 2007 on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources ofincome.