New Delhi: Though the Delhi government on Monday (October 5) assigned superior responsibilities to police officer Vivek Bhagat, who is accused of sexual assault, it later said it is modifying its order in view of Bhagat’s request and pending an inquiry into the allegations against him.A woman journalist on Saturday accused Bhagat, an assistant commissioner of police (ACP)-ranked officer, of sexually assaulting her while she covered Saturday’s protests against chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. Later, two other female journalists reportedly came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Bhagat stemming from past incidents.No FIR was lodged as of Monday evening.Early on Monday evening it came to light that the Delhi government had assigned a current duty charge of the additional deputy commissioner of police (DCP) rank to ACP Bhagat and 11 other officers. ACPs holding this charge of routine duties of the additional DCP rank are neither authorised to exercise statutory duties of the latter post nor claim additional pay, seniority or allowances, the home department said.Later in the day, the government announced that it is modifying its order in view of Bhagat’s request that he not be assigned the current duty charge “till a full enquiry has been conducted in the matter of alleged harassment of women journalists and such enquiry has been satisfactorily concluded”.“The proposal to confer additional duty charge to these officers was initiated on August 25, much before the present set of events. The orders were issued after due approval on October 5,” the government also said.After the woman journalist made the allegations against Bhagat, she was detained while covering the next day of protests against the CEC on Sunday and once again on Monday morning when she and other journalists camped in front of the Parliament Street police station for a second day demanding an FIR be lodged against her complaint.The Hindu cited a Delhi police official as claiming on Sunday that there was no evidence against Bhagat. The Cockroach Janta Party has argued that an FIR ought to be lodged given that sexual assault allegations would make out accusations of a cognisable offence.In other news, the Delhi police on Monday evening issued four “guidelines for journalists” on covering demonstrations, one of which is that mediapersons must display their ID cards at work. Some officers of the Delhi police, including those who detained All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora on Sunday, have been accused of not displaying their name tags while policing the protests against CEC Kumar but also during the youth protests of July.