Former additional secretary tweets about DP not allowing him to contact his wife for nine hours
Former Additional Secretary to Government of India Ashish Joshi, who superannuated on March 31, 2026 after serving in the 1992 batch of Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service, has accused the Delhi Police of illegally detaining him for nearly ten hours without informing his family, in a tweet addressed to Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar which has now been retweeted by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan and has gone viral.
Joshi, who is quite active on social media and X, tweeted to Mr. Anurag Kumar at CPDelhi and DelhiPolice that informing an individual’s family during interrogation or detention is a legal mandate, not an optional courtesy.
He wrote that yesterday he was taken for interrogation after his morning walk at Nehru Park under the assurance that it would take very little time, however as the hours stretched on, his repeated requests to inform his wife of his whereabouts were denied by the concerned police officials who simply stated they were following instructions. He said he was only permitted to make a call at 6:38 PM, leaving his family and friends in total panic the entire day.
He requested the Commissioner to issue clear written instructions to all units and all police stations of Delhi 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 his family suffered.
According to The Wire, which confirmed the incident through an eyewitness friend of Joshi who saw police picking him up during his morning run at Nehru Park, Joshi was picked up by Crime Branch and Special Cell officials in plain clothes early Tuesday morning without any prior notice and taken to the police station where he was kept for about nine to ten hours and finally dropped home in the evening by Special Cell.
While initial reports suggested he was questioned for his tweet on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, The Wire reported that he was actually questioned for a tweet about difference of opinion between Home Minister Amit Shah and the Home Secretary over the treatment meted out to students during Jantar Mantar protests, and it was apparently a post against the Home Minister that led to his interrogation. It is not immediately known which tweet was the trigger but one of his posts dated August 13, 2026 had annoyed the government enough to get X to withhold it in India said the Wire.
Joshi’s charge is grave because under DK Basu guidelines laid down by Supreme Court and under Section 48 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, police are legally bound to immediately inform family about arrest or detention and inform grounds, which was violated as his worried wife had no clue till evening.
The incident, coming a day after another controversy where BBC reporter Huda Zarriwala allegedly stormed Saket police station late night with her cameraman demanding DCP and ACP be called for allegedly thrashing two innocent Muslim girl reporters of 4PM channel inside police station after they questioned Delhi Chief Minister at Max Hospital inauguration in presence of Union Home Minister who was chief guest, has created massive uproar over Delhi Police conduct towards journalists and critics.
