If "big people" are scared of him, it means he is now at par with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Thursday, his first remarks on allegations of "political intelligence" gathering by the AAP government's Feedback Unit.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has claimed that the Feedback Unit (FBU) set up by the Delhi government to check corruption allegedly collected "political intelligence", a charge denied by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Based on its preliminary inquiry, the agency in a report has recommended that an FIR be registered against Sisodia.
"The BJP has brought in new allegations against me that since 2015, I have been involved in snooping on them. If such big people, whose existence is dependent on using CBI, ED and Pegasus to conspire against opposition leaders, and if they are scared of me, it seems that I have also become equal to Modi," Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi. His party has claimed that the BJP's allegation that he was involved in "political snooping" is "completely false". The arvind Kejriwal government has also said the matter is "politically motivated".
The CBI has claimed that the AAP government had proposed setting up of the FBU in 2015 to gather information and actionable feedback regarding the working of various departments and autonomous bodies, institutions and entities falling under the jurisdiction of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). It further alleged that it was also to do "trap cases". The unit started functioning in 2016 with a provision of Rs 1 crore for secret service expenditure, the agency has claimed.
The CBI has alleged that Chief Minister Kejriwal moved the proposal in a Cabinet meeting in 2015, but no agenda note was circulated. No sanction from the lieutenant governor was taken for appointments in the FBU, it has alleged. "The Feedback Unit, in addition to collecting the mandated information, also collected political intelligence/intelligence qua miscellaneous issues," the CBI has said in its preliminary inquiry report.
The CBI took up the inquiry on a reference from the Delhi government's Vigilance Department that had detected alleged irregularities in the FBU. Prima facie, the agency has noted, there was deliberate violation of rules, guidelines and circulars by "delinquent public servants". "The nature of violations committed is inherently dishonest and as such materials disclose abuse of official position with dishonest intention by concerned public servants Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM, and Sukesh Kumar Jain, the then secretary (vigilance)," it has been alleged in the report.
According to the CBI, 60 per cent of the reports generated by the FBU pertained to vigilance and corruption matters, while "political intelligence" and other issues accounted for around 40 per cent.
