Ex-bureaucrat Ashish Joshi detained, questioned by Delhi Police for 8 hours

Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi was detained by Delhi Police on Wednesday and questioned for over eight hours at the counter-intelligence (CI) unit office in New Friends Colony (NFC) in connection with a case registered by the special cell, before being dropped home in the evening, police officers said on the condition of anonymity.

Joshi was picked up from Nehru Park while he was out on a morning walk, said his friends. He was dropped at his RK Puram residence by the special cell team later, the officers cited above said.

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“There is an FIR registered two days 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,” said a police officer, who did not want to be named. “He cooperated with the investigation and was let go after the questioning concluded,” the officer said, while refusing to elaborate on the nature or details of the FIR in question. “We had informed his family while he was being picked up,” the official said.

“Just got back home. Delhi Special Cell dropped me home. Details later,” Joshi said on X at 7.29pm.

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Joshi, a retired Indian Posts & Telecommunications, Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS) Group ‘A” officer, retired on March 31, 2026 as an additional secretary-ranked officer in the Government of India. He was suspended by the department of telecom in 2019 after a social media post asking for legal action against Kapil Mishra over a controversial video.

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An August 13 post on X by Joshi on the government’s response to the Jantar Mantar protests was “withheld in India due to a legal demand”.