Central sanction to prosecute Sisodia in ‘snooping’ case

The Ministry of Home Affairs has granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Delhi’s Deputy CM Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the Feedback Unit (FBU) snooping case in Delhi.

Delhi L-G VK Saxena had approved the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) request for a prosecution sanction and forwarded it to the Ministry.

The CBI, earlier this month, found in its preliminary inquiry that the FBU set up by the Delhi government to check corruption allegedly collected “political intelligence” and the agency recommended that an FIR be registered against Sisodia.

Reacting to the news, Sisodia on Twitter alleged that more cases like this would be filed as the AAP grew.

“Making false cases against your rivals is a sign of a weak and cowardly person. As the Aam Aadmi Party grows, many more cases will be filed against us,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Aam Aadmi Party dispensation had proposed setting up the FBU in 2015 to gather relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of the various departments and autonomous bodies, institutions and entities falling under the jurisdiction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) and also to do “trap cases”, the CBI said.

The unit started functioning in 2016 with a provision of Rs 1 crore for secret service expenditure, it said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal moved the proposal in a Cabinet meeting in 2015, but no agenda note was circulated. No sanction from the Lt Governor was taken for appointments in the FBU, it claimed.

“The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence/intelligence qua miscellaneous issues,” the CBI said in its preliminary inquiry report.

The CBI registered the preliminary inquiry on a reference from the Delhi government’s vigilance department, which had allegedly detected irregularities in the FBU.