New Delhi: The Delhi Police Special Cell was prepared with a list of his contacts and interrogated him about calls including those made through platforms like Signal and WhatsApp, retired civil servant Ashish Joshi has revealed.
What caught him by surprise, he told ThePrint, was the Special Cell officers’ access to his calls made via Signal, a private messenger application which claims privacy is at its core.
“The interrogators had a list of names of my juniors, DGs, including former Delhi L-G Najeeb Jung, and kept asking me who had divulged the contents of my tweet about the Home Minister and the Home Secretary,” Joshi said over a phone call.
The post in question regarding “a massive showdown” between Home Minister Amit Shah and Home Secretary Govind Mohan was removed from X after allegedly being flagged by authorities.
“The lists included names of everyone I had spoken to between 11-12 August. This included names of former colleagues, and friends like (former Delhi Lieutenant Governor) Najeeb Jung, former MP Sandeep Dikshit who I was helping to organise an event and several other bureaucrats who are friends and like family over normal calls, WhatsApp and even Signal,” he said.
Earlier, sources in the Delhi Police had confirmed that the Special Cell registered a case against Joshi in connection with his “online activity” under Section 192 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Though the case pertained to his 26 August post about the elections in West Bengal, Joshi said, he was mostly questioned about the deleted ‘Civil Services Grapevine’ post.
“I informed them that the post was a ‘grapevine’ and that everyone in the bureaucrat circles knew about it,” the retired officer said, adding that he refused to reveal any particular name. “Then, they began inquiring about a junior I had spoken to over Signal.”
In the first round of interrogation, the 1992-batch officer of the Indian Post and Telecommunication Accounts and Finance Service (IP&TAFS) recalled, he was shown a 26 August tweet regarding the Bengal elections.
“They began by asking why I had written that it was ‘Nuremberg style’ and what my intention was.”
Elections in West Bengal should be held again .
It is travesty of Democracy if it is not held again.
CJi must order fresh elections .
Chief Election Commissioner awaits Nuremberg style trial . He cannot escape it .
मजाक बना के रख दिया, है हिन्दुस्तान की Democracy को ।…
— Ashish Joshi (@bismil_prasad) August 26, 2026
To this query, Joshi said that he explained it was to highlight how the Constitution was not being respected by actions of the Election Commission.
Recalling the sequence of events that took place on 1 September, Joshi said he was exiting Nehru Park after the morning walk when two police officers asked him to join an interrogation in connection with a Special Cell case.
“This was around 8:45 am when the officers asked me to join an interrogation for an hour and a half, so I asked them if I could drive my car to their office, which they agreed.”
Joshi decided against informing his wife, fearing that she would get anxious on hearing the Special Cell.
“The (Special) Cell usually deals with terrorists and conspiracy cases, so to tell my wife that I was about to be interrogated by them would be a big scare,” he said, adding that the other reason was because he was categorically told that the interrogation would last an hour.
“When I reached I was told that it would take time as the officers had not yet arrived.”
Joshi told ThePrint that over the next 10 hours, he requested that he be allowed to make a call to his wife, but each time he was told that there were “strict instructions from seniors to not let him make calls”.
The retired officer was released Wednesday evening after his questioning was over. It was around 7.30 pm, when Joshi posted on X that the Special Cell had dropped him home.
The retired officer has requested the Delhi Police to share a copy of the FIR in connection with which he was interrogated. “My lawyers and I submitted a written note on Thursday (3 September) requesting Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar to share a copy of the FIR. However, we are yet to receive it,” he said.
ThePrint reached a Delhi Police representative for comment via calls and WhatsApp regarding Joshi’s allegations. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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