The Centre has given its nod to register a case against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others for illegally snooping on rivals through a newly created Feedback Unit (FBU).
On February 17, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gave the Delhi’s Lt Governor’s office the go-ahead to launch a probe against Manish Sisodia under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which empowers the police to investigate a public servant. The Delhi LG had forwarded the CBI’s request to the MHA to convert its Preliminary Enquiry into a regular case to investigate snoopgate.
Reacting to the Centre foisting another case against him, the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister described the move as a sign of a “weak and cowardly person”. In social media posts, Sisodia also expressed the apprehension that more cases may be filed against AAP leaders.
The Delhi government’s vigilance department had reached out to the CBI to probe the alleged snooping issue. The CBI’s PE revealed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought the Cabinet’s nod in 2015 for raising the FBU without circulating any agenda note. The Union Territory government also did not approach the Lieutenant Governor for approvals for appointments to the Unit, which raised eyebrows at the investigation agency. A year later, the FBU started functioning with a provision of Rs 1 crore as secret service expenditure.
The CBI in its PE has charged that the FBU was not serving the interest of the Union Territory but was working towards some “hidden purpose” and for the “private interest of the Aam Aadmi Party and Manish Sisodia”. The CBI suspects that Sisodia connived with former vigilance secretary Sukesh Kuomar Jain to play a key role in the FBU’s creation.
“The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence/ intelligence qua miscellaneous issues,” the CBI’s PE said. The CBI observed that prima facie it appeared that “delinquent public servants” deliberately violated rules, guidelines, and circulars to raise the FBU.
“The nature of violations committed is inherently dishonest and as such materials disclose abuse of official position with dishonest intention by concerned public servants Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM, and Sukesh Kumar Jain, the then Secretary (Vigilance),” the PE alleged.
The CBI said of the total reports generated by the FBU, 60 per cent related to vigilance and corruption matters, while the remaining 40 per cent were for “political intelligence” and other issues. “The scrutiny of such reports during the period from February 2016 to the early part of September 2016 shows that a substantial number of reports submitted by FBU officials related not to actionable feedback or information on corruption in any department, institute, entity, etc. under the GNCTD, but o political activities of persons, political entities and political issues touching the political interest of the Aam Aadmi Party, BJP, which was beyond the scope and ambit of functions of FBU,” the CBI alleged.
The UT administration, the CBI pointed out, did not take any action on the information gathered by the FBU. “Use of FBU to this extent for the purpose of gathering political intelligence for AAP or for its Convenor Arvind Kejriwal can reasonably be interpreted to mean and constitute the obtaining of valuable things or pecuniary advantage, as gathering this information otherwise would necessarily have entailed spending money,” the CBI charged.
The CBI and Enforcement Directorate have also booked Sisodia and others in the Delhi excise case