MHA grants prosecution sanction to CBI against Deputy CM Manish Sisodia- What's Feedback Unit snooping case?

The Ministry of Home Affairs has given sanction to prosecute Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Feedback Unit snooping case. The decision came after Sisodia comes under the radar of the CBI in the liquor policy case. The snooping allegations against Sisodia have been reportedly brought by the CBI in a report which claimed that after coming to power in Delhi in 2015, the Aam Aadmi Party formed a feedback unit for political intelligence gathering.

Deputy CM Sisodia took to his Twitter to react to the latest development in this case, “Making false cases against your rivals is a sign of a weak and cowardly person. As the Aam Aadmi Party grows, many more cases will be filed against us.” The Delhi government as well as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has called the allegations against Sisodia “completely bogus”.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena gave his approval to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s request for prosecution sanction and forwarded the same to MHA after the agency sought sanction to register an FIR against Sisodia. The MHA letter sanctioning Sisodia’s prosecution came on February 17.

What is Delhi snooping case?

In a probe by CBI, it was found that the AAP government in Delhi allegedly indulged in political snooping soon after it came to power in 2015. In CBI reports, they mentioned that the ‘snooping’ was being conducted by the government’s ‘Feedback Unit’ (FBU). 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.

Delhi government denies all allegations

The Delhi government and Deputy CM Sisodia have dismissed charges and said that the ruling party, BJP allegations are ‘completely false’. The Kejriwal government also claimed in a statement that all these cases are “politically motivated”.

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“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.

Sisodia heads the Vigilance department of the Delhi Government, under which, in 2015 the unit was allegedly surreptitiously created as an ‘Extra Constitutional-Extra Judicial Intelligence Agency”. In March 2017, the Vigilance department had given the probe to Anti Corruption Branch (ACB). Subsequently, the LG office marked it to the CBI and the preliminary inquiry into the said matter was completed in 2021.

Though Sisodia claims that the aim of the FBU was to strengthen the vigilance establishments and gather feedback on the working of various government departments, autonomous bodies, or institutions.

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