Cong leader asks Delhi LG to prosecute Kejriwal under Sedition Act: Report
Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit on Wednesday asked Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena to permit the prosecution of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over allegations a special unit of the AAP government spied on political rivals in 2015.
Dikshit asked Saxena to prosecute Kejriwal under relevant sections of the Sedition Act, news agency ANI reported.
Last week the union home ministry allowed the CBI to formally investigate Manish Sisodia – Delhi deputy chief minister till last night, when he quit after his arrest this week over the liquor excise policy case – in the same matter.
The CBI claims Sisodia led the alleged feedback unit for gathering intel on the AAP’s rivals, charges the embattled politician called ‘cowardly’. “Many more cases will be filed against us as AAP grows.”
What is the ‘feedback unit’ snooping case?.
In 2015 – when the AAP won its first full term – it set up a ‘feedback unit’ or FBU. The stated purpose was to collect relevant information and actionable feedback on departments, autonomous bodies, institutions and entities under its jurisdiction, and also to probe corruption cases.
The CBI has claimed no sanction was taken from the then-LG, Najeeb Jung.
The FBU began working in February the following year with a provisional budget of ₹1 crore, according to the CBI, which also claimed it probed 700+ cases in eight months. 40 per cent of these were allegedly related to snooping.
The CBI said the FBU had a ‘hidden purpose… not in the interest of the Government of Delhi but (in) private interest of AAP and Sisodia’.
“… seems to have been well-conceived attempt to establish extraneous and parallel covert agency with overarching powers of snooping and trespass… without any legislative, judicial or executive oversight whatsoever,” Delhi LG Saxena said in a January 12 note recommending a CBI probe.
What did the AAP say?.
The AAP dismissed the ‘politically motivated’ charges. “Till now, CBI, ED and Delhi Police have registered 163 cases against us… BJP has not been able to prove even a single case… 134 of these cases have been dismissed… in the rest, BJP-led Centre has not been able to provide evidence,” the party said.
Liquor scam double whammy
Things went from bad to worse for the AAP after Sisodia was named in the liquor excise policy scam, in connection with which he was arrested Sunday.
The AAP leader was denied bail by a special court on Monday – which sent him to CBI custody for five days – and, on Tuesday, was turned away by the Supreme Court; the top court directed him to ‘available legal remedies’ at the High Court.
Sisodia and another jailed Delhi AAP leader – ex-health minister Satyendar Jain, who has been jailed nine months on money laundering charges – quit last night.
Their resignations have been accepted by Kejriwal and forwarded to president Droupadi Murmu, while their (several) portfolios have been re-distributed among cabinet colleagues Kailash Gahlot and Raaj Kumar Anand.
On Wednesday morning, citing increased workload, the Delhi government proposed the induction of two new faces – Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj.