Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has approved the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request to file a case against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia over allegations that the AAP government, after coming to power in 2015, created a Feedback Unit (FBU) under the vigilance department to “collect political intelligence”. The L-G has referred the CBI’s request to the President, via the Ministry of Home Affairs. The CBI had also requested permission to file a case against senior officials who were associated with the FBU, which the L-G has also approved. "I am of the considered view that the case requires to be further investigated by CBI deeply, after registering a regular case. I, therefore, approve the proposal of the Directorate of Vigilance to forward the request of CBI in respect of Manish Sisodia. to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the competent authority to consider granting approval for 'Investigation' under Sec 17A," reads the order issued by the L-G. According to internal documents of the vigilance department and the CBI, the proposal to create the FBU was allegedly moved in September 2015 and approved in October 2015 by the Chief Minister without a cabinet note. The unit was allegedly created to strengthen the vigilance establishment and gather "relevant information and actionable feedback" on the working of the various departments, institutions, entities, etc under the jurisdiction of GNCTD”. According to the CBI, the FBU started functioning from February 1, 2016, manned by 17 contractual employees, most of whom were retired officials of Intelligence Bureau and Central Paramilitary Forces. It is alleged that the unit was created in haste. "No approval was taken before the creation of posts for the FBU or for the recruitments made thereto, from Lt Governor, Delhi, who is the competent authority," the L-G’s order reads. However, after the High Court upheld that L-G is the administrative head of the government, the vigilance secretary sent the file seeking ex post facto consent of the then LG Najeeb Jung twice in August 2016. Jung ordered that the matter be referred to the CBI for full investigation, taking note of prima facie evidence of improprieties and violation of rules, the L-G order reads. ". there was a concerted effort by the State Government to create an agency that was outside its mandate and not within the constitutional scheme of Governance. There seems to have been a well conceived attempt to establish an extraneous and parallel covert agency with overarching powers of snooping and trespass, without any legislative, judicial or executive oversight whatsoever,” the order states. "Needless to say, the seeds of creation of an extra constitutional/extra judicial body on lines of a private intelligence agency, answering to none but a single individual, were sown right at the inception stage.” As per the CBI, an analysis of the nature of the reports generated by the unit allegedly showed that “while 60% are related to Vigilance matters, political intelligence and other issues accounted for around 40%”. "The scrutiny of such reports during the period from February 2016 to 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, institutes, entities, etc… but related to political activities of persons, political entities and political issues touching political interest of AAP, BJP or like, which was beyond the scope and ambit of functions of FBU. Thus apparently the FBU was misused by the concerned public servants for the purpose other than the one for which it was manifestly created," states the preliminary enquiry report, submitted by the CBI to the vigilance department last month seeking L-G approval for enquiry. According to L-G's order, there was also evidence of disregard of financial propriety. It states: “A provision of Rs 1 crore was kept for Secret Service Expenditure for operationalisation of FBU and it also came to light subsequently that some amount remained in the custody of Advisor, Anti Corruption to the Chief Minister. The LG also noted from the CBI report that vouchers supporting the expenditure of Rs 2.10 lakh incurred for engaging M/s Silver Shield Detectives were fabricated, as the agency has denied having received any amount or provided any service for the FBU.” The Delhi government called the allegations “bogus”. “All allegations are completely bogus. Till now, CBI, ED and Delhi police have registered so many cases against us. About 163 cases have been registered 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, BJP central govt has not been able to provide any evidence. These all cases are politically motivated. CBI and ED should rather investigate the dubious relationship between Modi and Adani where the real corruption happened,” the Delhi government said in a statement. The AAP also issued a statement: “Allegations of political snooping against Sisodia ji are completely false. The whole world knows Modi ji is involved in political snooping, not Sisodia. An FIR should be registered against Modi ji, not Manish ji.” The L-G also said that the AAP government used this infrastructure as a potent tool for dangerous misuse, especially considering that the Unit was manned by retired officials of IB & Central Paramilitary Forces and details of their functioning or the reports generated by them were directly submitted to the Chief Minister, for serving the vested interest of a particular political party. The L-G recommended a "deep threadbare investigation into the whole matter, over and above the evidence already gathered by CBI, so as to ascertain if there existed any sinister design akin to challenging the established constitutional authority of the State by clandestinely subverting institutions and statutes, and, if so, bring to book all those involved in such activities”.
