Who is Ashish Joshi and what is the controversy surrounding the Delhi Police Special Cell interrogating the former DoT bureaucrat? | Today’s news
Former senior bureaucrat Ashish Joshi claimed he was interrogated by a special cell of the Delhi Police for nearly nine hours on Wednesday after he was picked up while he was out for a morning walk. The matter came to light on Wednesday evening with Joshi’s post on X saying “Just returned home. Delhi Special Cell took me home. Details later.”
In a follow-up post to Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar in the early hours of Thursday, Joshi reminded the top cop that it is a legal mandate to inform an individual’s family during questioning or detention.
What Ashish Joshi said
“Yesterday, after a morning walk, I was taken for questioning under the assurance that it would take very little time. However, as the hours dragged on, my repeated requests to inform my wife of my whereabouts, the police officials/officers concerned simply said they were ‘following instructions,'” Joshi said in a post on X.
According to Joshi, he was only allowed to call his panicked family at 6:38 p.m.
“I request that you issue clear instructions to all police-led units to strictly adhere to the legal obligation to immediately inform the family of any person brought in for questioning, so that no citizen’s family has to endure the distress that mine has suffered,” he continued.
Who is Ashish Joshi?
Joshi is a former Controller of Communications in the Ministry of Telecommunications. According to Joshi’s LinkedIn profile, he holds a Master of Management Studies (Public Policy) from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and has held several key positions in the DoT in his bureaucratic career. A 1992 batch India Post and Telecom Accounts and Financial Services officer, Joshi has been posted as DoT Controller of Communications in Uttarakhand. According to Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit, Joshi retired as Additional Secretary to the Government of India.
What the Delhi Police said
While the Delhi Police is yet to make any public comments on the development, PTI, citing sources, reported that the former bureaucrat was interrogated by a special cell in connection with the old case for nearly nine hours and later allowed to leave.
Joshi was interrogated by the counter-intelligence unit of the special cell at its office in New Friends Colony, Delhi Police sources quoted by PTI said, adding that he was released in the evening after his statement was recorded and no arrest was made.
The source also contradicted Joshi’s claim and said that the former bureaucrat and his family were properly informed about the case when he was brought in for questioning.
