Sisodia to be prosecuted in snooping case, Home ministry gives go-ahead

The ministry of home affairs has given sanction to prosecute Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Feedback Unit snooping case.

The development comes as Sisodia is on the radar of the CBI in the liquor policy case. The snooping allegations against Sisodia have been brought by the CBI in a report which claimed that after coming to power in Delhi in 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party formed a feedback unit for political intelligence gathering.

Manish Sisodia headed the alleged snooping unit, the CBI’s report said. The AAP dismissed the charges earlier. “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 earlier said refuting the charges.

Earlier, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena approved the CBI’s request for the prosecution of Sisodia and forwarded the request to the home ministry.

In its report, the CBI said the feedback unit was formed through a cabinet decision of September 29, 2015. Headed by Sisodia, the unit has no legislative or judicial legality but was snooping on politicians, the CBI said.

No agenda on the unit was circulated and the then-L-G’s permission was also not sought, CBI said. The unit started functioning in 2016 with a provision of ₹1 crore for secret service expenditure, the agency alleged. 60 per cent of the reports generated by the FBU pertained to vigilance and corruption matters, while “political intelligence” and other issues accounted for around 40 per cent, the report said.

“The BJP has brought in new allegations against me that since 2015, I have been involved in snooping on them. If such big people, whose existence is dependent on using CBI, ED and Pegasus to conspire against opposition leaders, and if they are scared of me, it seems that I have also become equal to Modi,” Sisodia earlier tweeted in the wake of the allegations.