VANCOUVER — A Vancouver police officer has been charged with assault in connection to an arrest where a man was punched.

West Vancouver Police conducted the investigation involving Const. Ismail Bhabha after a video of the incident surfaced on the Internet.

The footage shows Bhabha punching a cyclist he was attempting to handcuff during an arrest in March.

The officers involved said they were trying to arrest a man because he rode his bicycle through a red light and wasn't wearing a helmet.

The Office of the Police Complaints Commission ordered the West Vancouver police to investigate the allegations.

The Crown approved the recommendation of the single charge of assault this week and the charge was sworn against Bhabha in Vancouver provincial court on Friday.

Bhabha was recognized five years ago by British Transit police for bravely apprehending a violent mentally-ill man on London’s tube.

London-born Bhabha joined the VPD in 2008, the same year he received an award of excellence from the British Transport Police Federation for coming to the rescue of woman and her daughter being harassed by a mentally ill man.

The incident happened in March 2007 at King’s Cross Station when Bhabha, off duty at the time, confronted the man and was bitten in the cheek during the ensuing struggle. The man was eventually restrained with the help of five other officers and Bhabha was taken to hospital, where he had surgery to repair a wound to his face.

At his assailant’s trial, the judge reportedly praised Bhabha for preventing “serious injuries to other people and members of the public.”