Rajan Bhagat, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)
Brief: Official spokesman and PRO of the 80,000-strong Delhi Police (DP), one of the world’s largest metropolitan police forces, Bhagat’s work far exceeds his designation. From 10 am to 7 pm, he is surrounded by hundreds of reporters who flock the DP headquarters at ITO. He also has to arrange press conferences for senior officers. Since 2006, he’s the one whom other officers look up to for their 15-seconds of fame.
Police vs PRO: Says Bhagat, “As a policeman, I’m in the thick of action. As the PRO, I only collect information about unfolding action and pass it on to the media.”
On Media: Bhagat, whose contacts rival that of big PR firms, says, he often has to decide how to project an event, and formulate DP’s view on it. With an inspector and three SIs under him, he collects details from 180 DP stations, besides departments like Special, Crime and Economic Offence. As soon as an incident happens, he says, “My phone starts ringing. By the time the media start calling, I’m already updated about it.” He also has to keep a tab on the media to correct any erroneous information.
Background: A Delhiite who studied commerce at DU, Bhagat joined the Delhi-Andaman Nicobar Police in 1994.
Contact: Call 1090 to inform DP about any suspicious thing, activity or object.