Manish Sisodia in the middle of another storm: MHA gives sanction to prosecute him for ‘snooping unit’

Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had earlier approved the CBI’s request for sanction to prosecute Sisodia, and forwarded it to the MHA.

Sisodia responded to the development in a tweet: “Filing false cases against your competitors is a sign of a weak and cowardly person. As the Aam Aadmi Party grows, many more cases will be filed.”

The Deputy CM, who also holds the crucial education and finance portfolios, has also been summoned by the CBI for questioning on February 26 in connection with a separate case – related to alleged irregularities in the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.

In the feedback unit case, Sisodia, as head of the Delhi government’s vigilance department, is accused of having allowed the unit to run surreptitiously as an “Extra Constitutional-Extra Judicial Intelligence Agency”, as per a probe by the Delhi government’s vigilance department followed by a CBI preliminary enquiry into the matter.

According to the CBI, the FBU started functioning from February 1, 2016 with 17 contractual employees, most of whom were retired Intelligence Bureau and central paramilitary force officials.

The objective was to allegedly spy over different ministries, opposition political parties, entities and individuals, and it had no legislative or judicial oversight, the L-G noted while referring the matter to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The unit was allegedly being run and managed by close aides and advisors of CM Arvind Kejriwal, who reported directly to him, according to the findings of the vigilance probe as well as the CBI PE. The case also pertains to allegedly illegal or unaccounted for expenditure in the name of ‘Secret Service Fund’ allocated to the FBU.

As reported by The Indian Express, this ‘Secret Service Fund’ was allegedly kept in a chest that could only be opened by turning two keys simultaneously, and cash payments for “secret operations” made to “sources” were scrawled on an unofficial register against an ‘S’ followed by a number, as per the agency’s investigation, prior to it seeking prosecution sanction.