Retired Bureaucrat Ashish Joshi Questioned By Delhi Police Special Cell For Nearly 10 Hours

The Delhi Police Special Cell detained retired bureaucrat Ashish Joshi for nearly 10 hours of questioning before releasing him in the evening, in a case that has drawn attention to how the government has responded to his social media activity.

Joshi, a 1992-batch officer of the Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service, retired on March 31, 2026, at the rank of Additional Secretary in the Government of India after a career spent in the accounts and finance cadre serving the postal and telecommunications sectors.

An eyewitness reported that officers picked up Joshi during his routine morning walk at Nehru Park in Delhi, a detail that has become part of how the incident has been described publicly, given the informal setting in which he was approached rather than through a formal summons.

Joshi has been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi-led government on social media platforms since his retirement, and according to an associate who witnessed the incident, the extensive questioning reportedly focused on an online post directed at Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Law enforcement authorities have not formally specified the precise post that prompted the inquiry, leaving the exact basis for the nearly 10-hour questioning session officially unconfirmed even as accounts from those close to Joshi point to the Home Minister-related post as the focus.

Joshi's social media activity has previously drawn government action: on August 13, 2026, central authorities instructed the platform X to withhold one of his posts from display within India, an earlier instance of the government responding directly to his online commentary.

No formal legal charges or official proceedings have been announced following the questioning, and Joshi was released the same evening after the Special Cell concluded its interrogation.