Just before 7.30 pm, Joshi said on social media that he had been dropped off at his home by the special cell.
After Joshi was allegedly detained, there was widespread concern on social media.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate asked whether the Narendra Modi government was “so uncomfortable with his social media posts that it has to resort to this”.
Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi @bismil_prasad was picked up by two plainclothes Delhi policemen during his morning walk in Delhi earlier today.
Is the Modi government so uncomfortable with his social media posts that it has to resort to this?
Former civil servant Ashish Joshi was picked up while on his morning walk by men in plain clothes, purportedly Delhi Police personnel, and asked to follow them to the special cell police station in New Friends Colony, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit alleged on Wednesday.
Just before 7.30 pm, Joshi said on social media that he had been dropped off at his home by the special cell.
Dikshit told Scroll that the former bureaucrat had been “interrogated”, but no case has been registered against him.
Just got back home.
Delhi Special Cell dropped me home .
Details later . — Ashish Joshi (@bismil_prasad) September 2, 2026
A friend who was with Joshi on his morning walk in Nehru Park told Dikshit that the officers said that this concerned a post on social media platform X that the former bureaucrat had made about Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Last month, the former civil servant had claimed on X that there had been a “massive showdown” between Shah and Home Secretary Govind Mohan on the matter of police action against students protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
Joshi had claimed that the home secretary was “against severe police action against students” and that there was “resistance” by junior officers who were on the field.
The post was withheld in India, with X stating that the action was taken “in response to a legal demand”.
After Joshi was allegedly detained, there was widespread concern on social media. Several activists and Opposition members urged the Delhi Police to clarify if they had taken him into custody. The police in the national capital report to the Union home ministry.
Scroll had attempted to contact Joshi, but received a message saying that his phone was switched off or not reachable.
Hours after returning home, in a social media post addressed to Delhi Police chief Anurag Kumar, Joshi said that informing a person’s family while they are interrogated or detained is a legal mandate and not an optional courtesy.
Joshi said he had been taken for interrogation after his morning walk “under the assurance that it would take very little time”. However, even after several hours of his repeated requests to inform his wife about his whereabouts, the police officers “simply stated they were ‘following instructions’”, he stated.
The former bureaucrat said that he was allowed to make a call at 6.38 pm, “leaving my family and friends in total panic the entire day”.
Joshi requested the police chief to 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”.
This morning my good friend and someone assisting me in reaching out to civil society Ashish Joshi @bismil_prasad (retired Additional Secretary) has been taken away by two police constables from Nehru Park. I came to know after his wife spoke to me in the morning. We have been… — Sandeep Dikshit (@_SandeepDikshit) September 2, 2026
Joshi, a 1992-batch Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service officer, retired on March 31. He was earlier posted in the Union Department of Telecommunications.
In February 2019, he was suspended by the Union government after he sought action against “incendiary” posts of former Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kapil Mishra, who later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
His suspension was revoked in November 2021.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Supriya Shrinate asked whether the Narendra Modi government was “so uncomfortable with his social media posts that it has to resort to this”.
Apart from Dikshit, several Opposition leaders and activists also expressed concern about the former civil servant’s disappearance.
Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi @bismil_prasad was picked up by two plainclothes Delhi policemen during his morning walk in Delhi earlier today.
His whereabouts remain unknown.
Is the Modi government so uncomfortable with his social media posts that it has to resort to this? — Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) September 2, 2026
Transparency activist Anjali Bharadwaj had urged the police to immediately clarify if they had picked up Joshi, disclose his whereabouts and state the legal provisions under which he was allegedly taken into custody.
Inputs from Ayush Tiwari. Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
