Special commissioner of police (crime branch) Taj Hasan was on Tuesday made the new chief spokesperson of the Delhi police, a day after Alok Kumar Verma took charge as the new commissioner of police of the 80,000-strong force. Mr Hasan, 51, replaced deputy commissioner of police (crime) Rajan Bhagat, who served the Delhi police as its spokesperson — an additional charge — since 2006, in pursuance of an order by Mr Verma. This is the first major change in the force after Mr Verma took charge on Monday. When Mr Verma was the director-general of Tihar, the prison authorities had accused the Delhi police of “misusing” media through their spokesperson in connection with the murder of two inmates in a jail van brawl last year which led to a blame game between the Delhi police and the prison authorities.
Mr Hasan, an 1987 batch IPS officer, has earlier served the Delhi police as the chief of traffic department and joint commissioner of security unit among other important positions. Mr Hasan was also appointed the special nodal officer for addressing Kashmiri students’ issues in the national capital by lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung on February 24. The move comes in the wake of the questioning of several Kashmiri students by the Delhi police after a row over an event in JNU campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
