MHA clears CBI probe against Manish Sisodia. They are scared, says AAP
CBI sought sanction to investigate Manish Sisodia and five others in January in a communication sent to LG VK Saxena, who recommended a full-fledged probe to the Union home ministry on January 12
NEW DELHI: The ministry of home affairs (MHA) has given its approval to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in connection with a “feedback unit” set up by the city government in 2016, setting up another confrontation between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Centre.
MHA granted its sanction under the Prevention of Corruption Act to investigate Manish Sisodia on 17 February and conveyed its decision to lieutenant governor VK Saxena and CBI, said people familiar with the matter.
The people said CBI sought the government’s sanction to register a first information report (FIR) in January this year on the ground that the surveillance unit was set up in violation of procedures and that 40% of the 700 cases that it picked up pertained to “political intelligence” and not its stated purpose of keeping a tab on the functioning and corruption, if any, in different departments.
“Use of FBU to this extent for the purpose of gathering political intelligence for AAP or for its convenor Arvind Kejriwal can reasonably be interpreted to mean and constitute the obtaining of valuable things or pecuniary advantage, as gathering this information otherwise would necessarily have entailed spending money,” CBI alleged.
The government’s sanction to investigate Sisodia under the PC Act was required in view of the 2018 amendment to the PC Act that requires the police and CBI to seek prior approval before conducting any “enquiry” or “investigation” for an offence alleged to have been committed by public servants in discharge of their official duties. Previously, CBI only needed the government sanction to prosecute the accused under the anti-corruption law.
A person aware of the matter said CBI is expected to file a first information report (FIR) in connection with this case against Sisodia and five others who were part of the FBU very soon.
AAP and Sisodia described the entire case against the deputy chief minister as a false case. “Filing false cases against one’s rivals is a sign of a weak and cowardly person. The more AAP will grow, the more cases will be filed against us,” Sisodia said in a post on Twitter.
AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj trashed the case. “It is the work of losers and scared people to implicate their rivals in a false case. As AAP grows further, more such false cases will be filed. This case is completely false,” Bharadwaj said in a statement.
Sisodia is already being investigated by CBI as the ‘main accused’ in the Delhi excise policy 2021-22 case for allegedly favouring private businessmen in getting wholesale and retail liquor licences in the capital in lieu of kickbacks.
CBI questioned Sisodia for the first time in the case on October 17 and has summoned him to appear for questioning on February 26. To be sure, Sisodia has not been named in three separate charge sheets filed so far in the case – one by CBI and two by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
According to CBI’s preliminary inquiry report, the AAP government proposed setting up the FBU in September 2015 to gather relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of the departments and autonomous bodies, institutions and entities falling under its jurisdiction and also to probe corruption cases. No cabinet note was moved for the proposal and no sanction was taken from the LG for the same.
The unit started functioning on February 1, 2016 with a provision of ₹1 crore for secret service expenditure.
“The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence/intelligence qua miscellaneous issues,” CBI said in its PE report, submitted to the LG along with its request seeking sanction under Section 17A against Sisodia and five other officials. HT has accessed the details of the enquiry report.
According to CBI, the FBU investigated more than 700 cases during eight months out of which 60% of the reports generated by it pertained to vigilance and corruption matters, while “political intelligence” and other issues accounted for around 40 per cent.
“Use of FBU to this extent for the purpose of gathering political intelligence for AAP or for its convenor Arvind Kejriwal can reasonably be interpreted to mean and constitute the obtaining of valuable things or pecuniary advantage, as gathering this information otherwise would necessarily have entailed spending money,” CBI alleged.
CBI said the FBU was functioning for some hidden purpose which was not in the interest of the GNCTD but “private interest of the Aam Aadmi Party and Manish Sisodia”, who played an active role in the creation of the unit.
In his note recommending a CBI probe on January 12, Saxena said there appeared 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.” HT has reviewed the note.
“Surreptitiously, creating an infrastructure for snooping/eavesdropping in the national capital, running, in effect, a parallel system of illegitimate intelligence gathering infrastructure for gathering political information on adversaries’ of the party in power, and countering the legitimacy established security/intelligence infrastructure of the country, inter alia, is a potent tool for dangerous misuse – especially considering that the Unit was manned by retired officials of IB (Intelligence Bureau) and central paramilitary forces and the details of their functioning or the reports generated by them were directedly submitted to the Chief Minister, for serving vested interest of a particular political party,” Saxena said in the note.
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