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What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
In a letter to the LG, three Congress leaders demanded an NIA probe against the Delhi CM and others for political snooping.
Delhi LG VK Saxena has forwarded the request of three Congress leaders for a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into charges of spying by the AAP government’s Feedback Unit, to the Delhi chief secretary for further action.
In a letter to the Lieutenant Governor on March 1, former Congress MP Sandeep Dikshit, and former party legislators Mangat Ram Singhal and Kiran Walia demanded an investigation under relevant provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The leaders also said that the sanction granted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute jailed former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia in the Feedback Unit spooning case for corruption was not relevant.
The matter not only encompasses corruption, but it is a clear case of sedition involving spying on people and institutions, including those of the Central government in full knowledge of CM Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet, they argued.
“To acquire a capacity to listen to conversations, gather intelligence and information and to ‘spy’ on people and institutions in the National Capital Territory that includes the Government of India, the defence establishments, intelligence agencies of the Union Government etc, is a clear case of sedition,” they wrote.
In their letter, the Congress leaders also said that they believe that the alleged crime invokes the UAPA, or similar acts while seeking the LG’s direction to the CBI or the NIA to investigate the allegations under the “law governing sedition and anti-national activities”.
“As evidence of wrongdoing has already been found, the concerned CM and ministers of Delhi, the government and officials must be prosecuted under such sedition and anti-national laws as may be found applicable in this.”
“We would like to draw your attention to the fact that if the Government of Delhi, with full knowledge of its Chief Minister, the entire Cabinet and in the presence of senior Government officials sanctioned and set up a unit that had the capacity and intent to collect information, electronic data etc. with a capacity to intercept and listen to/observe/record data, which is neither allowed to this Government Constitutionally or in any other way a part of its duties and responsibilities, then it is not just a case of corruption,” the letter read.
In February this year, Saxena gave the nod to the CBI to file a case in the alleged illegal surveillance matter.
Later, the Centre paved the way for registering a new case against Sisodia, a senior AAP leader, by giving the CBI sanction for prosecution in a case related to the alleged collection of “political intelligence” through a Delhi government department.
The Union home ministry conveyed to the LG’s office granting of sanction to prosecute Sisodia under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (powers to police for investigating a public servant).
