The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against seven people, including former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with a snooping case related to the alleged “Feedback Unit” (FBU) of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. ).’
The CBI registered the FIR on March 14 — days after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sanctioned the prosecution of Sisodia. They were charged with criminal conspiracy, misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, forgery to defraud, using a forged document as genuine, falsifying accounts and public officer offences. .
“On March 9, we received a written complaint from Vijay A. Desai, Inspector, CBI (Anti-Corruption Branch). A case was registered against Manish Sisodia, then Deputy CM of Delhi, Sukesh Kumar Jain, then Vigilance Secretary Delhi, Rakesh Kumar Sinha, retired DIG CISF – then Special Advisor to Chief Minister and Joint Director (FBU), Pradeep Kumar Punj, former Joint Deputy Director of Intelligence of the office – the then Deputy Director (FBU), Satish Khetrapal, former CISF Deputy Commandant – working as Feed Back Officer, Gopal Mohan, Anti-Corruption Adviser to the Delhi CM and unknown others,” the FIR states.
Complainant Desai said the investigation revealed that the FBU, in addition to collecting mandated information, also collected political intelligence, which accounted for about 40 percent of the total news it generated and was outside the scope and range of functions for which it was apparently created. “Investigation also revealed that Sisodia gave approval for special allowance for FBU on a proposal submitted by P K Punj vide note dated April 22, 2016.
As described above, the illegal manner in which the FBU was formed and operated caused undue loss to the exchequer of approximately Rs 36 crore ,” he claimed.
In the FIR, Desai said that on the orders of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, a written complaint was received from K C Meen, Deputy Secretary (Vigilance), Directorate of Vigilance, Delhi Secretariat. “Regarding this complaint, a Preliminary Inquiry was registered in the CBI on December 2, 2016, from which it was found that the creation of the FBU was approved by Cabinet Decision No. 2217 dated September 20, 2015, which was adopted on the basis of the “Submitted Point” with the approval of the Chief minister of Delhi,” he claimed.
“The mandate of the FBU was to collect relevant information and feedback regarding the activities of various departments/autonomous bodies/institutions/entities etc. in the jurisdiction of the Delhi government and pursue entrapment cases. Accordingly, the Secretary (Vigilance) has been directed to submit a detailed proposal for setting up the FBU. The places created for the FBU were designed to be filled initially by serving and retired people. Later, the Secretary (Vigilance) submitted a detailed proposal for setting up the FBU, which was approved by the Chief Minister on October 28, 2015, and with the approval of the Delhi CM, the FBU was asked to report to the Secretary (Vigilance),” the FIR said.
Desai said the inquiry also revealed that no approval was received from the competent authority, Delhi L-G, for the appointment of retired staff to the FBU and these appointments were void, null and void ab initio as they were not only contrary to rules, directives and constitutional provision.
“The FBU started functioning from February 2016 and apart from other equipment, a provision of Rs 1 million was kept for secret service expenses for the year 2016-17, of which Rs 10 million was paid to the FBU in two installments of Rs 5 each. lakh each on June 7 and 13, 2016. Of this, Rs. It turned out that FBU spent 5.5 million,” he said.
Read Now :<strong>The UN High Seas Treaty is a landmark but science must fill in the gaps</strong>
