Appalled at Delhi Police detaining former civil servant, violating Constitution, say ex-bureaucrats

A group of former bureaucrats on Saturday said that they were appalled by the manner in which ex-civil servant Ashish Joshi was detained by the Delhi Police, describing it as a violation of the Constitution.

In an open letter, the Constitutional Conduct Group said it was shocked by the “blatant display of unconstitutional power” by the police. Joshi is a member of the group.

The letter was sent to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Delhi’s police commissioner and the national capital’s Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu. The Delhi Police reports to the Union home ministry.

On September 2, Joshi was picked up in Delhi during his morning walk by plainclothes police personnel and interrogated for several hours. Two days later, he said that a first information report had been registered against him for a social media post. It was filed under sections pertaining to provocation with the intent to cause a riot.

The FIR was registered for a post he made on August 26, in which he had called for a “Nuremberg-style trial” of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, The Wire reported.

Joshi, however, said that on September 2 he had been questioned about another post from last month, in which he had alleged that there had been a “massive showdown” between Union...

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