Delhi Police Question Ex-Bureaucrat Ashish Joshi Over Social Media Post

Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi was questioned for several hours by the Delhi Police's Special Cell on Wednesday after being approached near Nehru Park over his recent posts on social media. Joshi, a 1992-batch officer of the Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service, stated that he and his legal counsel have not yet received a copy of the FIR lodged against him.

According to Joshi, two Delhi Police personnel approached him on Wednesday morning as he was leaving Nehru Park in the city. The officers briefly displayed the first page of an FIR, which cited an August 26 post he made on social media platform X concerning SIR and elections in West Bengal. Joshi stated that he was not shown the second page of the document.

On Thursday, Joshi visited the Delhi Police headquarters carrying a formal letter from his advocates requesting a complete copy of the FIR. The case against him has been registered under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a provision addressing acts of wantonly giving provocation with the intent to cause a riot.

Police sources confirmed that Joshi was questioned regarding an online post on X in which he called for a "Nuremberg style trial" of the chief election commissioner in relation to the West Bengal elections, alongside demands that the polls be conducted again. Nuremberg tribunals were military trials conducted in the aftermath of World War II.

During the session, Joshi claimed investigators questioned him broadly regarding his activity on social media platforms. He stated that the inquiry covered his remarks concerning the chief election commissioner as well as another post he published on August 13.

Addressing the request for case documents, police sources stated that because Joshi was only questioned and not placed under arrest, there was no requirement to provide him with a copy of the FIR at this stage of the proceedings.