Sandeep Dikshit, two Delhi ex-Ministers seek probe under UAPA into FBU snooping case; Write to L-G

The L-G Secretariat has forwarded the request to the Delhi Chief Secretary for further action

Former MP Sandeep Dikshit and Mangat Ram Singhal and Kiran Walia, two former Delhi Ministers, have written to L-G V.K. Saxena, demanding an NIA probe under the UAPA into charges of snooping and spying by the city government's Feedback Unit, officials said on March 13.

The L-G Secretariat has forwarded the request to the Delhi Chief Secretary for further action, they added.

Mr. Dikshit and the former Ministers wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Saxena on March 1, saying the sanction to the CBI to prosecute former Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the Feedback Unit case under the Prevention of Corruption Act was not relevant since it was not just a matter of corruption but a clear case of sedition involving spying on people and institutions, including those of the Centre, in full knowledge of the Chief Minister and the Cabinet.

"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.

"While we are not lawyers, we believe that this invokes the UAPA, or similar acts and the CBI and the NIA must be directed by yourself to investigate under laws governing sedition and anti-national activities and 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 maybe found applicable in this," the letter to Mr. Saxena read.

Last month, Mr. Saxena gave the nod to the CBI to file a case in the matter.

Later, the Centre paved the way for registering a new case against Mr. Sisodia, a senior AAP leader, by giving the CBI sanction for prosecution in a case related to alleged collection of "political intelligence" through a Delhi Government department.