CBI Registers FIR Against Jailed Manish Sisodia And Others In 'Snooping Case'

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against seven people, including former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in connection with a "snooping case" related to the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) alleged Feedback Unit (FBU).

The Union Home Ministry had granted the prosecution sanction to the CBI against Sisodia in the case. In a communication to the principal secretary to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor, the home ministry said the sanction to prosecute Sisodia was granted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. 

The CBI had said it found during its preliminary inquiry that the FBU, set up by the Delhi government to check corruption, allegedly collected "political intelligence" and the agency recommended that an FIR be registered against Sisodia.

The AAP dispensation had proposed setting up the FBU in 2015 to gather relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of the various departments and autonomous bodies, institutions and entities falling under the jurisdiction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) and also to do "trap cases", the CBI said.

The unit started functioning in 2016 with a provision of Rs 1 crore for secret service expenditure, it said. The CBI alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal moved the proposal in a Cabinet meeting in 2015, but no agenda note was circulated. No sanction from the Lt Governor was taken for appointments in the FBU, it claimed.

Sisodia while reacting to the development hit out at the Centre, describing prosecution sanction against him as a "cowardly" act. He is already facing a CBI casefor alleged favours extended to liquor traders in the formulation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise policy of 2021-22.

(With inputs from PTI)