As per the World Health organization (WHO) requirement, the water for drinking purposes should be 100% virus free. This invention reports a polymer impregnated porous substrate membrane and method for the preparation of said membrane for capturing viruses from water. The water filtered through the membrane prepared by the process of the present invention has been tested to be virus free and fully potable based on the tests carried out at the Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India and Sriram Institute for Industrial Research (an ISO 9001 R&D Organization), New Delhi, India. The invention will be of immense use especially for the developing countries and third world countries which are subjected to the problem of unsafe drinking water. This invention is useful also for the developed countries for use in water treatment plants due to highly industrialized nature and existence of a variety of manufacturing units like chemicals and fertilizers.