New Delhi: Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vivek Bhagat, who was accused of molesting a woman journalist during last week’s anti-EC protests in Delhi, has filed a complaint alleging that she made casteist remarks against him and humiliated him. An FIR was registered against the woman journalist Tuesday at Parliament Street police station under sections of the SC/ST Act, along with those relating to obstructing a public servant and criminal defamation.
This comes days after the Delhi Police claimed that CCTV footage of the alleged incident was AI-generated, and arrested a youth from Haryana over it.
Bhagat, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste community, said the incident had “affected his mental health and damaged his reputation”.
In the FIR registered on his complaint, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Bhagat identified his community as “Megh/Mehgwal”. He alleged that the journalist pointed to his nameplate bearing the name ‘Vivek Bhagat’ and said, “Ye Bhagat hai, Meghwal hote hain, ye choti jaati ke hote hai, silai bunai ka kaam karte hai ye sala kahan se ACP ban gaya (He is a Bhagat, they are Meghwals, lower caste, they do sewing stitching work, how did he become an ACP?)?”
According to the FIR, the ACP alleged that the remarks were made in public near the Buta Singh Roundabout before she accused him of sexual assault. He said he and Constable Ravi Dahiya heard her referring to him by his name and caste identity while speaking to a few people, including her colleague Gajender Singh of News Diggy.
“It was clearly a casteist remark intended to humiliate me. At that moment, I ignored the same and continued performing my duty,” he alleged in his complaint.
According to his complaint, the incident took place on 3 October, when he was on law-and-order duty in the area following a call by AISA president Neha Bora and others to gather at Jantar Mantar for a protest against the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The demonstrators had gathered at Buta Singh Roundabout around 2.30 pm to proceed towards Jantar Mantar. Police personnel made announcements about the enforcement of Section 163 of the BNSS in the area and asked the protesters to disperse, but to no avail, according to his complaint.
Police personnel then began detaining the protesters and putting them in buses. The ACP said he was involved in this process in accordance with the law.
He further said that around 3 pm, while clearing a passage for a bus carrying detainees, he turned around and saw the journalist, who began accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
He alleged that the journalist and her colleagues or friends, including Gajender Singh, “ambushed” him five or six times, asking how he dared to touch her inappropriately.
“All this resulted in voluntary obstruction of my official duty,” he said.
On 6 October, amid growing calls for an FIR against Bhagat, Delhi Police arrested a resident of Haryana’s Palwal for allegedly circulating a “fabricated video falsely portraying” the officer “misbehaving” with the complainant.
According to Additional DCP (New Delhi) Manjeet Sheoran, the accused “used AI tools to generate CCTV footage where ACP Vivek Bhagat can be seen misbehaving with the woman journalist”.
No FIR has been registered against Bhagat in connection with the woman journalist’s allegations.
‘Labelled me a sexual predator’
The ACP said in his complaint that he continued avoiding the journalist and carrying out his duties. Later that day, around 6.15 pm, she and her colleagues staged a protest outside Parliament Street police station, he said. He alleged that they shouted slogans naming him and labelled him a “sexual predator” and “potential rapist”.
The ACP further alleged that multiple posts were made on X and Instagram by them, along with Cockroach Janta Party members Abhijeet Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, Saurav Das and Ratna Singh, labelling him a “sexual predator”.
He described the journalist’s complaint against him as “malicious”, adding that it was filed at Parliament Street police station and later transferred to the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, where it was under inquiry.
“It has taken me some time to process this,” he said, adding that he had approached Parliament Street police station to lodge a formal complaint seeking action against her.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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