The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday made one more arrest in Delhi’s Excise Policy scam involving Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The central investigating agency is said to have arrested Abhishek Boinpally.

“He is from Hyderabad. He is a big businessman there. His name cropped up during the course of investigation. He was called to join the investigation but he was not cooperating in the questioning and was trying to mislead the CBI. We had no option but to arrest him. He was placed under arrest this morning. He is not named in the FIR,” the source said.

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The arrested accused will be produced before the Rouse Avenue Court. The CBI will seek his two weeks’ custodial remand, added the source.

Vijay Nair, Jor Bagh-based businessman was the first accused to be arrested by the CBI in the excise scam. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested Sameer Mahendru, who is an alleged associate of Nair.

On October 7, the ED carried out searches at nearly three dozen locations in Delhi and Punjab in connection with the case, days after it arrested Mahendru, Managing Director, Jor Bagh-based liquor distributor Indospirit Group.

On September 27, the CBI arrested businessman Vijay Nair, former CEO of the event management company Only Much Louder.

In August, the CBI registered a case to probe an alleged scam in the framing and implementation of the excise policy and issued a Look-Out Circular (LOC) against eight people.

A total of nine people have been named as accused in the case. Except for Manoj Rai, a former vice president of Pernod Ricard, an LOC has been issued against all of them.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, then Excise Commissioner Arva Gopi Krishna, Deputy Commissioner Anand Tiwari and Assistant Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar have also been named in the excise scam case.

The ED and the CBI have alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy, including undue favours being extended to license holders, the license fee being waived or reduced and the L-1 license being extended without the competent authority’s approval. The beneficiaries were also alleged to have diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books to evade detection.