New Delhi, Oct. 6 -- 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.
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.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police arrested a 24-year-old man for allegedly circulating an AI-generated video falsely portraying ACP Vivek Bhagat sexually assaulting a woman journalist, officials said on Tuesday.
Nadeem Ahmed Ameen, a resident of Palwal in Haryana, was apprehended from Mewat on Monday. Police recovered the mobile phone allegedly used to circulate the fabricated reel and said it was logged into the Instagram account '@news_aaina0776', which had around 24,000 followers and 1,226 posts.
Police said the account presented the manipulated video as genuine CCTV footage, prominently displaying Bhagat's photograph, name and designation. A case was registered at the New Delhi district Cyber Police station on October 4 under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. A court granted police custody of Ameen for further investigation.
Investigators are probing the source of funding and whether the incident was part of a larger conspiracy to tarnish Delhi Police's image and spread disaffection during the protests.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.