Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Wednesday detained former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi and questioned him for several hours in connection with a case regarding his online activity before allowing him to go home. Taking to social media later in the evening, Mr. Joshi confirmed that officials had dropped him back at his residence.
During morning walk
Mr. Joshi, a 1992-batch Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS) officer who retired as an Additional Secretary-rank official on March 31, was picked up during his morning walk.
Two men in plain clothes approached him at Nehru Park and asked him to accompany them to the Special Cell’s office in New Friends Colony.
The development triggered concern among his acquaintances and drew allegations on social media that he had been taken away by police personnel without his whereabouts being disclosed.
Former Congress MLA Sandeep Dikshit, a friend of Mr. Joshi from college days, said he learnt of the incident from Mr. Joshi’s wife after failing to reach him on phone.
“This morning my good friend and someone assisting me in reaching out to civil society Ashish Joshi … has been taken away by two police constables from Nehru Park,” Mr. Dikshit said in his post on X, urging Delhi Police to clarify where he had been taken.
Congress leader Supriya Shrinate also said Mr. Joshi had been picked up by two plainclothes Delhi Police personnel during his morning walk.
“Is the Modi government so uncomfortable with his social media posts that it has to resort to this?” she wrote on X.
Transparency activist Anjali Bharadwaj urged the police to immediately clarify whether Mr. Joshi had been detained, disclose his whereabouts and state the legal provisions under which he had allegedly been taken into custody.
No details given
Delhi Police did not immediately disclose details of the case in which Mr. Joshi was questioned or the specific online activity under investigation.
The allegations came against the backdrop of Mr. Joshi’s recent social media activity, including X posts on the police action against students protesting at Jantar Mantar, the Q1 GDP figures and “failures” in infrastructure projects.
Mr. Joshi had earlier been suspended by the Union government in February 2019 after he sought action against what he described as “incendiary” social media posts by then Aam Aadmi Party legislator Kapil Mishra, who later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Published – September 03, 2026 01:02 am IST
