Ashish Joshi asks Delhi court for FIR after questioning by police

Ashish Joshi has moved a Delhi court for a copy of the FIR under which he says police detained and questioned him for 10 hours.

The former bureaucrat said in his application that two people identifying themselves as Special Cell officials approached him near Nehru Park at about 8:45 a.m. on September 2, as he returned from a morning walk. They allegedly told him to accompany them for questioning over a post from his X account and said he had been named as an accused.

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Legal right flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution and not a matter left to the discretion of the investigating agency.

Joshi said he went with them to the Special Cell police station, where he was detained and interrogated from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. He claims officers did not provide the FIR despite repeated requests during the questioning. He also alleges that they did not tell his wife where he was, causing his family “grave anxiety, harassment and mental agony”.

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The continued and unexplained denial of a copy of the FIR... has caused serious prejudice, uncertainty and hardship.

Represented by lawyer Aadil Singh Boparai, Joshi said he sent requests for the document to the Delhi police commissioner and the deputy commissioner of police for the Special Cell on September 3. He said neither office responded.

His plea argues that providing an FIR to a person named in it, or to someone with reason to believe they have been named, is a legal right under Article 21 of the Constitution rather than a matter for investigative discretion. Without the document, he says, he cannot determine the allegations against him or effectively seek legal remedies. Chief Judicial Magistrate Mridul Gupta of Patiala House Court is expected to hear the request on Tuesday. Joshi also argues that he committed no cognisable offence warranting detention and interrogation.

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Grave anxiety, harassment and mental agony.