Gandhinagar, June 30 : Senior IPS officer Vikas Sahay has been granted a six-month extension as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat, making him the fourth police chief in the state to receive such an extension after retirement.

Sahay follows in the footsteps of former DGPs Ashish Bhatia, S. S. Khandwawala, and Shivanand Jha, all of whom were granted post-retirement extensions during their terms.

Among them, Ashish Bhatia received the longest extension, eight months, after his scheduled retirement on May 30, 2022. Shivanand Jha, a 1983-batch IPS officer, was given a three-month extension upon his retirement on April 30, 2020.

Similarly, S. S. Khandwawala was granted an additional three-month term in 2010. Vikas Sahay, born in June 1965, is a seasoned IPS officer from the 1989 Gujarat cadre.

He joined the Indian Police Service in August 1989 after training at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy.

Over his extensive career, Sahay has held various key positions, serving as Superintendent of Police (SP) in Anand and Ahmedabad Rural, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Additional CP in Ahmedabad, and later as Additional CP and Joint CP in Surat City.

He was also Deputy Director General from 2010 to 2016 and then Director General at Raksha Shakti University until 2020.

In March 2023, he was appointed as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat, becoming the state's top police chief.

Known for his administrative calm and clean record, he has steered critical initiatives, such as mandating police escorts for school trips statewide and managing internal agency coordination during high-profile fraud complaints.

Vikas Sahay also belongs to a family of distinguished civil servants. His elder brother, Vivek Sahay (1988 batch IPS), is the DGP of West Bengal, while their youngest brother, Vikram Sahay, serves in the Indian Revenue Service in Delhi.

/IANS