Delhi Police questions former bureaucrat over post against Amit Shah

New Delhi: Delhi Police detained retired senior bureaucrat Ashish Joshi during his morning run at Nehru Park on Wednesday and questioned him for nearly 10 hours before allowing him to return home.

Joshi was eventually dropped at his residence by personnel from the Delhi Police Special Cell in the evening.

A 1992-batch officer of the Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service, Joshi retired on March 31, 2026, as an additional secretary-ranked officer in the central government. He has been an outspoken critic of the Narendra Modi government on social media, The Wire reported.

According to a friend of Joshi who witnessed the detention, the questioning was apparently linked to a social media post targeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah. It was not immediately clear which post the police were referring to. However, one of Joshi’s posts from August 13 had reportedly prompted the government to direct X to withhold it in India.

The friend said he and Joshi were sitting near the Lenin statue at Nehru Park at around 8.40 am when he briefly left to get some water. On returning, he saw two young men approaching Joshi. They identified themselves as officers of the Delhi Police Special Cell in New Friends Colony and were carrying a folder.

According to the eyewitness, the officers told Joshi that he had posted something against the home minister and that they had been instructed by DCP Chandra and ACP Kushwaha to take him in for questioning.

When the friend asked why the officers could not question Joshi at the park itself, they reportedly said they had located him there and needed to take him to the Special Cell for interrogation.

The friend also requested that Joshi be allowed to return home first to change out of his running shorts. Joshi, however, indicated that he was willing to go as he was.

The eyewitness said he later travelled to the New Friends Colony police station, but officers there denied having any information about Joshi.

Joshi's phone remained switched off throughout the day and was reportedly restored to an online status at 5.23 pm. A few hours later, Joshi posted on social media that he had reached home.

At 1.31 am on September 3, Joshi alleged that his family had not been informed about his detention and questioning. Addressing Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and the Delhi Police, he said informing a person's family during interrogation or detention was a legal obligation rather than a matter of discretion.

He said he had been taken away after his morning walk on the assurance that the questioning would be brief, but the process continued for several hours. According to Joshi, repeated requests to inform his wife about his whereabouts were met by police officials saying they were acting on instructions.

Joshi further alleged that he was permitted to make a phone call only at 6.38 pm, leaving his family and friends anxious for most of the day. He urged the police commissioner to issue clear directions to all units to ensure that families are promptly informed whenever a person is taken in for interrogation.

Joshi also shared the lyrics of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poem Hum Dekhenge.

At the time of publication, The Wire said it had been unable to contact Joshi for his account of the incident. A query sent to the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations Unit of the Delhi Police Special Cell also remained unanswered.