Ajit Karn
The Ministry of Home Affairs has authorised the prosecution of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the “alleged Feedback Unit” eavesdropping case.
In a communication dated February 17 to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor Secretariat, the Ministry of Home Affairs authorised the CBI to prosecute Sisodia in the alleged eavesdropping case. The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, VK Saxena, approved the CBI’s application for prosecution authorization and forwarded it to the MHA.
The CBI had requested permission to file a FIR against Sisodia, who heads the Delhi government’s Vigilance department, under which the AAP government had secretly created the FBU in 2015 to allegedly spy on various ministries, political parties, entities, and individuals.
“Without legislative or judicial oversight, this snooping unit was allegedly run and managed by the closest aides and advisors of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who reported directly to him. The case also involves illegal/unaccounted-for expenditures made in the name of the Secret Service Fund allotted to the FBU, according to sources.
Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had referred the case to the President of India for prosecution sanction against Manish Sisodia through the Ministry of Home Affairs following the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) report to the vigilance department against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the ‘Feedback unit’ case.
In March 2017, the Vigilance department transferred the investigation to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB). The LG office then forwarded it to the CBI.
The preliminary investigation into the aforementioned matter was concluded in 2021. In 2021, the CBI requested authorization under section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act by writing to the LG and MHA.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government allegedly established a Feedback Unit in 2015. The objective was to bolster the vigilance apparatus and collect information on the performance of various government departments, autonomous bodies, and institutions.
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In 2016, in response to a complaint from an officer of the Delhi government’s Directorate of Vigilance, the CBI conducted a preliminary investigation and discovered that in addition to its assigned duties, the FBU, as it was referred to in official communications, collected political intelligence pertaining to the political activities of persons, political entities, and political issues affecting the political interest of AAP.
