The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has granted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the feedback unit snooping case. The approval is to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In a communication to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor Secretariat dated February 17, the MHA granted permission to the CBI to prosecute Sisodia in the alleged snooping case. This came after Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena approved the CBI's request for prosecution sanction and forwarded the same to the MHA, according to the ANI.
As per the CBI reports, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reportedly formed a feedback unit (FBU) after it came to power in Delhi in 2015. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was allegedly the head of the FBU which was an "Extra Constitutional-Extra Judicial Intelligence Agency."
According to the CBI, no agenda on the unit was circulated and the then-L-G's permission was also not sought. While 60 per cent of the reports generated by the FBU pertained to vigilance and corruption matters, "political intelligence" and other issues accounted for around 40 per cent, the report said.
The FBU actively spied on different ministries, opposition political parties, entities and individuals, the CBI report added.
The snooping unit was allegedly being run and managed by the close aides and advisors of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who reported directly to him. The case also pertains to illegal/unaccounted expenditure in the name of the Secret Service Fund of ₹1 crore allocated to the FBU.
In 2016, after the complaint of an officer of the Directorate of Vigilance, Delhi government, a preliminary inquiry was conducted by CBI. The investigating agency claimed that the probe revealed that in addition to the assigned job, the FBU also collected political intelligence related to the political activities of persons, political entities and political issues touching the political interest of AAP.
However, the AAP dismissed the charges calling them 'politically motivated.' "Till now, CBI, ED (Enforcement Directorate) and Delhi Police have registered 163 cases against us. However, BJP has not been able to prove even a single case. About 134 of these cases have been dismissed by the courts and in the rest of the cases also, the BJP-led Centre has not been able to provide any evidence. These cases are politically motivated," the Delhi government defended.
Meanwhile, Sisodia also took to Twitter to hit out at the Centre's move which he described as signs of "weak and cowardly person" and said more frivolous cases will be filed as the AAP marches ahead.
He is already facing a CBI case for alleged favours extended to liquor traders in the formulation of now-scrapped Delhi Excise policy of 2021-22. He is to appear before the probe agency on February 26.