Ex-bureaucrat Ashish Joshi moves court for FIR copy after 9-hour police questioning

Days after former civil servant Ashish Joshi was questioned for nearly nine hours by the Delhi Police Special Cell over his social media posts, he moved an application before a magistrate court on Monday seeking a copy of the FIR based on which he was detained and interrogated.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Mridul Gupta of Patiala House Courts is due to take up the application on Tuesday. According to Joshi’s lawyer, Aadil Singh Boparai, the FIR copy had not yet been supplied as of 2 pm on Monday. Joshi, a former Controller of Communications in the Department of Telecommunications, was picked up from Chanakyapuri for questioning on September 2 in connection with a case purportedly registered in August.

Police had said that Joshi was questioned regarding the case that was registered by the Special Cell’s Counter Intelligence (CI) unit under Section 192 of the BNS, which deals with provocation with the intent, or knowledge, that it is likely to cause a riot.

According to Joshi’s application before the court, he was returning from his morning walk from the vicinity of Nehru Park at 8.45 am on September 2 when two persons, who said they were Special Cell officials, had “accosted” him and “compelled him to accompany them for…interrogation/investigation with regard to an alleged tweet…” This was done, however, without furnishing him with a copy of the FIR, according to Joshi.

Joshi stated in his application that despite repeated requests during the interrogation for a copy of the FIR, it was not provided. Subsequently, he made a representation to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, on September 3, seeking a copy.

“The continued and unexplained denial of a copy of the FIR… despite specific and repeated requests… is contrary to the settled position of law and has caused serious prejudice, uncertainty and hardship to (Joshi) who remains wholly unaware of the precise nature of the allegations, if any, against him,” Joshi has stated.

The Indian Express reported that Joshi claimed that he had been summoned in connection with his August 26 post on X on the West Bengal elections, but that a substantial part of the questioning was about an earlier post in which he had referred to a purported disagreement between the Union Home Minister and Home Secretary.

Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court Professional Profile Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express.

Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare).

Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others.

She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020. With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles: High-Profile Case Coverage She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy.

Signature Style Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system.

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