New Delhi: Delhi Police detained former senior bureaucrat Ashish Joshi on Wednesday, subjecting him to more than eight hours of interrogation at the Counter-Intelligence (CI) unit office in New Friends Colony (NFC) in connection with a Special Cell case, police sources said.
Associates said Joshi was picked up from the Nehru Park area while on a morning walk and later escorted back to his RK Puram home by a Special Cell team in the evening.
FIR Probe Prompts ‘Routine’ Questioning: Police
Police officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Hindustan Times that Joshi was called in for “routine questioning” after his name came up during the investigation into an FIR registered two days earlier by the Special Cell.
“There is an FIR registered two days earlier by the special cell in which some links of Ashish Joshi emerged during the investigation. As Joshi’s routine questioning was required, he was brought to the CI’s office in NFC, where he was questioned,” a police officer said.
“He cooperated with the investigation and was let go after the questioning concluded,” the officer said, refusing to disclose details about the FIR. “We had informed his family while he was being picked up,” the official added.
Sources quoted by ThePrint said the case was booked under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which criminalises “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot”, and relates to Joshi’s “online activity”.
‘Family Not Informed’
Joshi, who retired in March 2026 as an additional secretary to the Government of India, later posted on X that his family was not informed during his detention, calling it a breach of legal obligation, as reported by NewsGram.
Addressing Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar, Joshi said he was told the interrogation “would take very little time” but ended up lasting hours, with officials repeatedly denying his requests to contact his wife.
“Mr Anurag Kumar @CPDelhi @DelhiPolice, Informing an individual’s family during interrogation or detention is a legal mandate, not an optional courtesy. Yesterday, I was taken for interrogation after my morning walk under the assurance that it would take very little time. However, as the hours stretched on, my repeated requests to inform my wife of my whereabouts, the concerned Police Officials/Officer simply stated they were ‘following instructions.’ I was only permitted to make a call at 6:38 PM, leaving my family & friends in total panic the entire day. I request that you issue clear instructions to all units directing officers to strictly uphold the legal duty of immediately informing the family of any person taken for interrogation , so that no citizen’s family has to endure the distress that mine suffered,” Joshi’s X post read.
Delhi Police has not officially confirmed Joshi’s detention or arrest and has yet to respond to the allegations raised by Joshi and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, who first flagged the incident on social media.