Home Ministry okays CBI request to prosecute Manish Sisodia in Delhi snooping case

The Ministry of Home Affairs has given sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisiodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Feedback Unit (FBU) snooping case in Delhi, according to sources.

The CBI had sought sanction to register an FIR against Sisodia, who heads the Vigilance department of Delhi government, under which the AAP government had allegedly “in 2015 surreptitiously created the FBU — an Extra Constitutional-Extra Judicial Intelligence Agency to spy over different ministries, opposition political parties, entities and individuals,” according to the CBI report.

“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, sources said.

The CBI had registered the preliminary inquiry on a reference from the Delhi government’s vigilance department, which had detected irregularities in the FBU.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had given his nod to the CBI’s request for prosecution sanction and forwarded it to MHA for approval.