The Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case against jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia over alleged corruption in the Delhi government's Feedback Unit (FBU).

Yesterday, CBI registered an FIR days after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gave sanctions to prosecute Sisodia. They have been booked on the charges of criminal conspiracy, dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust by a public servant, forgery for the purpose of cheating, using as genuine a forged document, falsification of accounts, and criminal misconduct by a public servant.

“A written complaint on March 9 was received from Vijay A. Desai, inspector, CBI (anti-corruption branch). A case has been registered against Manish Sisodia, the then Deputy CM of Delhi, Sukesh Kumar Jain, the then Secretary Vigilance in Delhi government, Rakesh Kumar Sinha, retired DIG of CISF – the then Special Advisor to the Chief Minister and Joint Director (FBU), Pradeep Kumar Punj, retired Joint Deputy Director of Intelligence Bureau – the then Deputy Director (FBU), Satish Khetrapal, retired Assistant Commandant of CISF – working as Feed Back Officer, Gopal Mohan, Advisor Anti-corruption to the CM of Delhi and unknown others,” the FIR states.

In the FIR, Desai said on the basis of orders of the Lieutenant Governor, Delhi, a written complaint was received from K C Meena, Deputy Secretary (Vigilance), Directorate of Vigilance, Delhi Secretariat. “On this complaint, a Preliminary Enquiry was registered on December 2, 2016, in CBI and the enquiry has revealed that the creation of FBU was approved vide a Cabinet Decision No. 2217 on September 20, 2015, which was taken on the basis of a ‘Tabled Item’ with the approval of the Chief Minister of Delhi,” he alleged.

“The mandate of the FBU was to collect relevant information and actionable feedback regarding the working of various departments/autonomous bodies/institutions/entities etc. in the jurisdiction of Delhi government and to conduct trap cases. Accordingly, the Secretary (Vigilance) was directed to submit a detailed proposal for setting up of FBU. The posts being created for FBU were proposed to be initially manned by serving as well as retired personnel. Later, the Secretary (Vigilance) submitted a detailed proposal for setting up FBU, which was approved by the Chief Minister on October 28, 2015, and as per the approval of the Delhi CM, FBU was asked to report to Secretary (Vigilance),” the FIR states.

“Sukesh Jain deliberately and wilfully avoided referring the matter of the creation of 20 posts in FBU to the Administrative Reforms Department for concurrence at any stage up to filling up of these posts. On the basis of Jain’s proposal, Sisodia approved that 20 posts in FBU be adjusted against 88 posts created in the Anti-Corruption Branch on January 25, 2016. These 88 posts were created vide Cabinet Decision no. 2137 on April 1, 2015. However, the Administrative Reforms department had only tentatively agreed to the creation of these 88 posts, subject to detailed work study by them,” it says.