Former bureaucrat’s police detention sparks constitutional outcry from retired officials
Retired civil servant Ashish Joshi was seized by Delhi Police and interrogated, prompting a group of ex-bureaucrats to denounce the action as unconstitutional.
On September 2, Delhi Police plain-clothes personnel stopped retired civil servant Ashish Joshi during his walk and held him for several hours of interrogation. Joshi later said an FIR had been registered against him for a social-media comment urging a “Nuremberg-style trial” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and he was also questioned about an earlier post alleging a “massive showdown” involving Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Constitutional Conduct Group, a body of 108 former senior officials including former DGP Julio Ribeiro and former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, sent an open letter to the Union Home Ministry, Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi’s police commissioner and Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu, labeling the detention a breach of Article 21 and of basic fairness. The group criticized the use of the police special cell, typically reserved for organized-crime and national-security cases, as disproportionate and warned it could suppress democratic discourse.
Joshi only received a copy of the FIR after approaching a court on September 7. The letter urged authorities to follow constitutional safeguards, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Supreme Court directives in future investigations.
Why it matters
It highlights tensions between law enforcement and free-speech rights in India, raising concerns about the use of police powers against critics.
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