New Delhi: Assistant Commissioner of Police Vivek Bhagat, who has been accused of sexually harassing a woman journalist during a protest here, has written to the Delhi Police chief requesting that the order assigning him the current duty charge of additional DCP be kept on hold in view of an inquiry pending against him in the Crime Branch.
In his letter dated October 5, Bhagat said his current duty charge as additional DCP had been approved through an order issued earlier in the day.
“However, considering the enquiry pending against me in the Crime Branch Delhi Police regarding allegations against me by a YouTuber, I hereby give my consent to keep this order concerning only me on hold,” he said in the letter addressed to the Commissioner of Police Anurag Kumar.
Bhagat, who is posted as Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Connaught Place, signed the letter and requested that the order concerning him alone be kept on hold.
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The development comes a day after the Delhi government said Bhagat’s current duty charge as additional DCP would be withheld after he requested “of his own volition” not to avail the charge until a full inquiry into the alleged harassment of women journalists is conducted and “satisfactorily concluded”.
Bhagat was among 12 DANIPS officers assigned the current duty charge of additional DCP on Monday. The government subsequently said the earlier order would be modified and reissued for assignment of the charge to the remaining 11 officers.
The government had also clarified that the proposal to confer the additional duty charge on the 12 officers, including Bhagat, was initiated on August 25, “much before the present set of events”, and the orders were issued after due approval on October 5.
Three women journalists have accused Delhi Police personnel of sexual harassment during an October 3 protest at Jantar Mantar against alleged irregularities in the functioning of the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The complaints have been received by the Delhi Police and forwarded to the Crime Branch for further inquiry.
