Calcutta: The Bengal government on Tuesday accepted IPS officer Bharati Ghosh's prayer for voluntary retirement with immediate effect.

The "speedy" release, a rarity in recent memory, has surprised many as the government could have sat on her plea for the VRS for long.

The 2006-batch officer had written to the director general of police, Surajit Kar Purkayastha, in the last week of December for the VRS. The plea came a day after the government had transferred Bharati from the post of West Midnapore police chief to the armed police.

Sources said Ghosh's letter to the DGP, expressing "disappointment" over her transfer and her wish to discontinue with the service, had fuelled speculations that the government might keep her application pending.

"Had the government wanted, it could have kept her application pending even without any reason or taken administrative steps against her... Applying for VRS is not wrong, but expressing dissatisfaction with the post is undoubtedly an act of rebellion," said a senior bureaucrat.

There were murmurs that Bharati's perceived proximity to Mukul Roy who had left Trinamul to join the BJP was the reason for the transfer.

According to rules, an application for a VRS by an IPS officer has to be cleared first by the state and then by the ministry of home affairs.

"The process usually takes a few months. The applicant also has to undergo a vigilance scrutiny before the release," a senior IPS officer said.

The order issued on Tuesday evening read: "Since Smt Bharati Ghosh, IPS (SPS-2006) has attained 50 years of age, she is eligible for seeking voluntary retirement under rule 16(2) of the All India Service (DCRB) Rules, 1958 and the state government is competent to accept her prayer."