CBI quizzes Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has left the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation after nearly nine hours of questioning in the liquor policy case. In some relief to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which has been bracing for his arrest, the agency has not summoned him for a second session.

The Deputy Chief Minister is the prime accused in the case, which involves alleged kickbacks to political leaders by private players in exchange for liquor shop licences. "After completing the necessary formalities, he was subjected to questioning about the Delhi government's excise policy, his relations with other accused named in the FIR (first information report) and documents recovered during the searches in the case." an unidentified official said.

Besides Sisodia, the CBI is also questioning Raghava Reddy, the son of Lok Sabha MP Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, in the case.

On Monday, before arriving at the headquarters of the Central investigating agency, Sisodia went to his party office, from where he proceeded to the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Delhi's Rajghat. The Delhi police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 outside Sisodia's house.

Meanwhile, several senior AAP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and MLAs Durgesh Pathak, Rakhi Birla, Kuldeep Kumar, Jarnail Singh, Pankaj Gupta and Kartar Singh, as well as workers were detained by the Delhi police Monday for holding a sit-in protest outside the CBI headquarters in "violation of prohibitory orders".

The Aam Aadmi Party has claimed Sisodia will be arrested to put roadblocks in the party's electoral campaign in Gujarat.

The CBI had booked Sisodia and 14 other persons on charges of irregularities in the now-scrapped liquor policy on August 17. On August 30, the agency had also raided premises linked to the Aam Aadmi Party leader and other accused persons.