New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has given sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Feedback Unit (FBU) snooping case in Delhi. Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had approved a request by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for prosecution sanction and forwarded the same to the MHA.

Manish Sisodia headed the alleged snooping unit, the CBI’s report said

The CBI had sought sanction to register FIR against Sisodia, who heads the Vigilance department of Delhi Govt, under which the AAP government had in 2015 surreptitiously created the FBU- an Extra Constitutional-Extra Judicial Intelligence Agency to spy over different Ministries, Opposition Political Parties, Entities and Individuals.

This snooping unit, with no legislative or judicial oversight, was being run and managed by the close aides and advisors of CM Arvind Kejriwal, who reported directly to him. The case also pertains to illegal/unaccounted expenditure in the name of Secret Service Fund allocated to the FBU.

Manish Sisodia headed the alleged snooping unit, the CBI’s report said.

A CBI probe found that the AAP government in Delhi allegedly indulged in political snooping soon after it came to power in 2015. In its report, the CBI mentioned that the ‘snooping’ was being conducted by the government’s ‘Feed

CBI found that the AAP government allegedly snooped on all departments of the government as well as political entities through FBU. The probe was initiated on the complaint by an official. The Central agency had registered the preliminary inquiry on a reference from the Delhi government’s vigilance department, which had detected irregularities in the FBU.

The probe agency had requested the Delhi L-G for further probe into the matter. The Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory then requested the President for permission for further action.

Meanwhile, the AAP dismissed the charges earlier. It said the BJP’s allegation that Sisodia was involved in “political snooping” is “completely false”. The Kejriwal government also claimed in a statement that these all cases are “politically motivated”.

“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.