Delhi BJP Chief Detained At Protest Against AAP Over Snooping Allegations

Delhi BJP working president Virendra Sachdeva was detained on Thursday while trying to breach a police barricade during a protest against Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia over allegations that he steered a political intelligence unit to spy on rivals.

Members of the BJP staged a protest near the Delhi Secretariat, demanding Mr Sisodia's removal after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader had formed the "Feedback Unit" or "FBU" after it came to power in the capital in 2015.

The AAP has called the charges "completely false" and "politically motivated". The allegations are the latest to scope out Mr Sisodia after investigating agencies, which report to the BJP-led government at the centre, launched a probe into Delhi's now-scrapped liquor sales policy.

The BJP's protest comes after reports said Delhi's Lt Governor VK Saxena, who reports to the central government as well, forwarded a recommendation of CBI to the President through the Home Ministry for filing a case against Mr Sisodia after an inquiry into the FBU.

A preliminary report of the CBI claimed that the FBU set up by the Delhi government months after AAP came to power in Delhi in 2015 indulged in "political intelligence".

"No one, not even journalists, businessmen, and senior officers, was untouched by the Feedback unit. The way the AAP government is functioning, very soon both Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia will be behind the bars," said Virendra Sachdeva said before he was detained.

Calling it a "very serious" matter, Mr Sachdeva said BJP will "continue the struggle" till both Mr Sisodia and his boss, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, are in jail.

Countering the charges in a statement, the AAP said, "The whole country knows political spying is done by [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi, not Manish Sisodia. An FIR should be registered against Modi, not Manish Sisodia."