The Union Home Ministry has given its sanction for a probe against Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the Feedback Unit (FBU) case. A CBI Preliminary Enquiry (PE) found that the Delhi government’s Feedback Unit FBU was involved in “political snooping”. What are the allegations against the FBU and why was it formed in the first place? Here’s a brief explainer.
BJP members protest in New Delhi over the alleged snooping on politicians by the Delhi government’s Feedback Unit, in this february 9 photo. (Photo: PTI)
By India Today Web Desk: The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday gave its sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia under the Prevention of Corruption Act in the Feedback Unit (FBU) snooping case. The CBI had stated after its Preliminary Enquiry that the FBU was used for “political snooping”. Here is all you need to know about the Feedback Unit and Delhi’s own alleged snoopgate.
THE ORIGINS OF THE FBU
The AAP government in 2015 lost a battle over the control of the the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government. The Lieutenant Governor got the control of the Anti-Corruption Branch.
After losing the tussle, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal decided to create his own investigation wing under its Vigilance Department. This is how the seed of the Feedback Unit, or the FBU, was sown.
The FBU was meant to keep tabs on government departments, autonomous bodies, institutions and other entities under the Delhi government’s jurisdiction.
The decision to create the Feedback Unit was taken at a Cabinet meeting of the Delhi government headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on September 29, 2015.
The FBU started functioning from February 2016. It was manned by around 17 contractual employees, most of whom were retired officials of the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Armed Police Forces.
A provision of Rs 1 crore was kept for Secret Service Expenditure. It was proposed by Deputy Director of the FBU to provide Rs 25 lakh as secret service fund to the Feedback Unit during 2016-17.
NEGATIVE FEEDBACK OF UNIT
The CBI didn’t mention in its Preliminary Enquiry report, which it submitted to the Vigilance Department on January 12 this year, if the Feedback Unit of the Delhi government was still operational.
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 L-G was taken for appointments to the FBU.
“That the Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence,” the CBI stated in its PE report.
The CBI analysed reports generated by the FBU between February 2016 and September 2016 and found that about 40 per cent of the reports on political intelligence. It said 60 per cent reports were related to vigilance matters.
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It said a substantial part of the reports of the Feedback Unit were related to political activities of persons, political entities and political issues touching political interest of AAP and BJP.
The political matters, the CBI stated, were beyond the scope and ambit of functions of the FBU.
The CBI stated the unlawful manner of the creation and working of the Feedback Unit caused a loss of approximately Rs 36 lakh to the exchequer.
WHY MANISH SISODIA IS UNDER THE SCANNER
The Ministry of Home Affairs has given a sanction to prosecute Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in alleged political snooping case as Sisodia heads the Delhi government’s Vigilance Department under which the FBU was created.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had given nod to CBI’s request to register a case against Manish Sisodia and five others. The officials and advisers to the government are RK Sinha, Pradeep Kumar Punj, Satish Khetrapal, Gopal Mohan and Sukesh Kumar Jain.
