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Former bureaucrat Ashish Joshi has moved a Delhi Court seeking a copy of the FIR registered against him over a post on X Corp (formerly Twitter), after being detained and interrogated by the Delhi Police Special Cell for 9 hours on September 02.

His plea will be heard tomorrow by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mridul Gupta.

Joshi has sought directions to the SHO or Investigating Officer of the Special Cell to forthwith furnish him a copy of the FIR in question.

According to the application, Joshi, aged around 60 years, was returning from his morning walk near Nehru Park at around 8:45 AM on September 02, when two persons claiming to be officials of the Special Cell allegedly approached him and asked him to accompany them for interrogation in connection with an alleged tweet posted from his X account.

The application states that the officers informed Joshi that he had been arrayed as an accused in an FIR, but did not furnish a copy of the FIR to him.

Joshi claims that he cooperated with the officials and accompanied them to the Special Cell Police Station where he was detained and interrogated for over nine hours, from approximately 9 AM to 7 PM.

The application further states that during the interrogation, Joshi repeatedly requested the officers to provide him with a copy of the FIR, but the same was not furnished to him.

He has also alleged that despite his detention, the Special Cell officers did not inform his wife about his whereabouts, causing his family “grave anxiety, harassment and mental agony.”

The plea further states that Joshi subsequently submitted representations on September 03 to the Commissioner of Delhi Police, as well as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, seeking a copy of the FIR. However, more than 72 hours had elapsed thereafter without the FIR being supplied or any response being received.

The plea avers that furnishing of a copy of the FIR to a person named therein, or to a person who has reason to believe that he may be named therein, is a legal right flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is not a matter left to the discretion of the investigating agency.

“The continued and unexplained denial of a copy of the FIR to the Applicant, despite specific and repeated requests made both at the time of detention and thereafter in writing, is contrary to the settled position of law and has caused serious prejudice, uncertainty and hardship to the Applicant, who remains wholly unaware of the precise nature of the allegations, if any, against him,” the plea states.

It adds that Joshi has not committed any cognizable offence warranting any detention and interrogation.

“In the absence of a copy of the FIR, the Applicant is unable to ascertain the precise nature of the allegations against him. The continuing denial of the copy of the FIR, thus, directly infringes upon the rights of the applicant to seek legal redress in accordance with the provisions of law,” he says. 

Joshi is represented by advocates Aadil Singh Boparai, Ronit Bose and Nikunj Bindal. 

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