New Delhi, India

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested New Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in a case linked to alleged corruption in excise policy, which has now been scrapped. 

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Sisodia was being interrogated by the officials of CBI since morning and arrested after more than nine hours of questioning. The officials said that Sisodia arrived at the CBI headquarters around 11.12am (local time) for the second round of questioning. 

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The politician had sought more time when he was asked to appear before the CBI last Sunday for questioning. He cited the pending work related to Delhi budget as he looks after the finance portfolio of the Arvind Kejriwal government. 

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But CBI officials said they were not satisfied with Sisodia's responses and claimed that he was not cooperating in the probe and was avoiding clarifications sought by officials on crucial points, India-based news agency PTI reported. 

The Anti-Corruption Branch of CBI was questioning the top politician of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over his alleged links with Dinesh Arora and other accused mentioned in the FIR. 

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Although the chargesheet in the case doesn't mention Sisodia's name, CBI mentioned details of message exchanges from multiple phones among others. 

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against seven people, including middlemen and liquor traders, in November, alleging that the Delhi government’s policy to grant licences to liquor traders favoured certain dealers who had allegedly paid bribes for it.

In a tweet earlier, Sisodia said he is ready for seven to eight months in jail. He wrote; "I don't care if I have to stay in jail for a few months. I am a follower of Bhagat Singh who was hanged for the country." 

Rapid Action Force (RAF) deployed outside the CBI headquarters after Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested in connection with a liquor policy case to maintain security. 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s tweet earlier in the day: 

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(With inputs from agencies) 

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