NEW DELHI: Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi was questioned by the Delhi Police Special Cell and was allowed to leave after nine hours on Wednesday, PTI reported.According to sources, Joshi, a former controller of communications in the Department of Telecommunications, had only been called for questioning in connection with an old case. Details of the case were not immediately available.The ex-civil servant was brought to the Special Cell’s office in New Friends Colony around 10 am and released around 7 pm. He was questioned by a team of the Counter Intelligence unit, which recorded his statement.“Just got back home. Delhi Special Cell dropped me home. Details later,” he posted on X after returning home.In a subsequent post, Joshi claimed he was taken for interrogration under an assurance that it would take “very little time.”“However, as the hours stretched on, my repeated requests to inform my wife of my whereabouts, the concerned Police Officials/Officer simply stated they were ‘following instructions.’ I was only permitted to make a call at 6:38 PM, leaving my family & friends in total panic the entire day,” he said, adding that informing a person’s family during interrogation or detention is a legal mandate and not an “optional courtesy.”The matter came to light after Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit claimed earlier on Wednesday that two Delhi Police personnel had “taken away” Joshi, whom he described as his close friend, from Nehru Park during his morning walk and that his whereabouts were unknown for several hours.
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According to Dikshit, Joshi, who retired as an additional secretary a few months ago, called him in the morning but he could not answer. When he tried calling back, the phone was switched off.“An eyewitness who was walking with him told the family that two police personnel came and said they had to take Ashish with them for questioning over a recent tweet,” the former MP claimed in a video statement.Dikshit also alleged that lawyers and others sent to the police station were initially unable to get confirmation about Joshi’s whereabouts.A senior police officer, requesting anonymity, maintained that Joshi and his family were duly informed about the case when he was brought in for questioning. He was questioned in a cordial manner and allowed to leave later, the officer added.