The Union Home Ministry has given sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the alleged "snooping political opponents through a specially designed Feedback Unit (FBU)"
According to reports, the snooping allegations against Manish Sisodia have been brought by the CBI in a report which claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi indulged in political snooping after it came to power in 2015
Delhi AAP government’s Feedback Unit started functioning in 2016 with a provision of Rs 1 crore for secret service expenditure. The CBI, in its report, alleged that the 'snooping' was being conducted through a Feedback Unit for political intelligence gathering
While the FBU was created to strengthen the vigilance establishment, it was reported that the AAP government allegedly snooped on all departments of the government as well as political entities in the interest of AAP
The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence or intelligence qua miscellaneous issues, the CBI said in its preliminary inquiry, as per a PTI report
The objective of AAP’s unit, the CBI said, was to allegedly spy on different ministries, opposition political parties, entities and individuals and had no legislative or judicial oversight
Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia on Wednesday described the sanction of his prosecution as "a sign of a coward person"
"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," tweeted Delhi Deputy CM Sisodia