Home ministry sanctions prosecution of manish sisodia in 'collection of political intelligence' case

Home ministry sanctions prosecution of manish sisodia in 'collection of political intelligence' case

The sanction to prosecute the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister was granted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

The Union Home Ministry has granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with the alleged ‘snooping on political opponents through a specially designed feedback unit (FBU)’.

The sanction has been granted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, the MHA said in a letter to the Principal Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.

In response to the development, Mr Sisodia said, ‘To file false cases on your opponents is a sign of a weak and cowardly person. As the Aam Aadmi Party grows, more cases will be filed against us.’

The CBI earlier this month said a preliminary inquiry showed that the FBUs set up by the Delhi government to monitor corruption were allegedly gathering ‘political intelligence’. The agency recommended an FIR be filed against Mr. Sisodia.

The Aam Aadmi Party proposed the constitution of 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 ₹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.