Additional Director General of Police Atulchandra Kulkarni on Thursday officially took over as the chief of the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS).
Mr Kulkarni, who was promoted as ADG three months ago but had retained his post as the Crime Branch chief — an IG level post — till his next posting was announced. He was named as the next ATS chief in the general IPS transfers announced by the state government on May 13 this year. He took over as the head of the ATS from ADG Vivek Phansalkar, who has been transferred to the Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau.
A 1990 batch IPS officer of the Maharashtra cadre like Date, Mr Kulkarni is the first policeman in his family. He began his career from Nanded district as an additional SP and worked in Jalgaon, Buldhana, Nagpur and Bhandara. He has also served two terms as a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai before he joined the Intelligence Bureau in 2002 as a Superintendent of Police. He served with the central intelligence agency for 11 years before being appointed as Mumbai Crime Branch chief.
While with the IB, he worked in intelligence, counter intelligence and anti-terrorism. Apart from Mumbai, where he was posted when the 26/11 attacks occurred in 2008, he has also served in New Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh, where he dealt with cross-border terrorism on the Indo-China border.
Mr Kulkarni has also worked with the Anti-Naxalite Operations unit in Nagpur and with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.
