Key Points
Police describe it as routine questioning tied to an FIR investigation, while Joshi and Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit describe it as a detention lasting over eight hours.
Joshi's central complaint is that police failed to inform his family during the questioning, which he says is a "legal mandate, not an optional courtesy."
Delhi Police have not officially confirmed the nature of Joshi's detention or responded to Dikshit's allegations as of publication.
FORMER BUREAUCRAT ASHISH JOSHI was detained by the Delhi Police on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, and was questioned for over eight hours. Police officials, on the condition of anonymity, stated to Hindustan Times (HT) that Joshi was brought to the Counter-Intelligence (CI) unit office in New Friends Colony (NFC), wherein he was questioned in relation to a case registered by the special cell before being dropped home in the evening.
Joshi previously served as additional secretary to the Government of Indian, and retired in March 2026. According to Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, a close friend of the bureaucrat, two police officials picked him up near the Nehru Park area in Delhi whilst the ex-bureaucrat was out on his morning walk. Later, a special cell team dropped Joshi off at his residence in RK Puram.
“There is an FIR registered two days later 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, who did not want to be named, stated to HT. “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 police official continued.
In an X post shared on Wednesday evening, Joshi directly addressed Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar and claimed that he was assured that the police interrogation “would take very little time” but stretched on for hours. He further wrote that his family wasn't informed about his detainment, something that is a “legal mandate and not an optional courtesy” as per Joshi.
“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 is yet to officially confirm Joshi’s detention or arrest, and has not issued a statement on Sandeep Dikshit’s allegations.
Ashish Joshi is a retired Indian Administration Services (IAS) officer, whose tenure as a civil servant ended on March 31, 2026. He was an Indian Posts & Telecommunications, Accounts, and Finance Service (IP&TAFS) Group ‘A” officer as an additional secretary-ranked officer in the Government of India. In 2019, he was suspended by the Department of Telecommunications, over a social media post of his asking for legal action against Kapil Mishra over a controversial video.
(Edited by Agniva Ray)
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