CBI Books Sisodia in Case Connected to Delhi govt’s Feedback Unit

NEW DELHI:
The CBI has registered an FIR against former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and others in connection with the Delhi Government’s Feedback Unit (FBU) which was allegedly doing political snooping, officials said on Thursday.

The agency has booked Sisodia, a 1992-batch IRS officer Sukesh Kumar Jain who was then secretary of vigilance, retired CISF DIG Rakesh Kumar Sinha who was working as special advisor to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and joint director in FBU, they said.

Besides, former joint deputy director of Intelligence Bureau Pradeep Kumar’ Punj, who was working as deputy director of the Feedback Unit, retired assistant commandant of CISF Satish Khetrapal who was working as feedback officer and Gopal Mohan, advisor, anti-corruption, to Kejriwal were also booked in the case, officials said.

Sisodia was earlier arrested by CBI in the Delhi excise policy case and is behind bars in an Enforcement Directorate case.

The AAP dispensation had proposed setting up the Feedback Unit 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 Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that 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 Feedback Unit, it alleged.

“The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence/intelligence qua miscellaneous issues,” the CBI said in its preliminary enquiry report.

The CBI registered the preliminary enquiry on a reference from the Delhi government’s vigilance department, which had detected irregularities in the Feedback Unit.