The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested businessman Vijay Nair in connection with the Excise Policy case on Tuesday evening. Nair, who was abroad for quite some time, was called for questioning at the agency’s office on Tuesday.

Sources said Nair was arrested for his alleged role in "cartelisation" and "conspiracy" related to alleged irregularities in the allocation of liquor licences in the city.

The CBI’s FIR has alleged that Arjun Pandey, an associate of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia, had once collected about Rs 2-4 crore in cash from liquor businessman Sameer Mahendru on behalf of Nair.

Nair’s link with AAP sparked controversy during the Excise Policy investigations, with BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya tweeting, “Sisodia had called some journalists for interaction but grew uncomfortable and called it off when asked about Vijay Nair, accused number 5 in the excise scam, the only non-bureaucrat, a non-liquor business owner in the list of 16, purported to be close to Kejriwal. Who is Nair?”

Nair is associated with several companies, including Only Much Louder, Babblefish and Motherswear. The Weirdass Comedy, Motormouth Writers and Rebellion Management, engaged in online gaming, betting and comedy shows are other companies that can be indirectly associated with Nair, including through his co-directors, officials said, citing Registrar of Companies records.

The FIR was registered by the CBI on a reference from the office of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena routed through the Union Home Ministry.

Besides Sisodia, the CBI has named as accused then Excise Commissioner Arava Gopi Krishna, then Deputy Excise Commissioner Anand Kumar Tiwari, Assistant Excise Commissioner Pankaj Bhatnagar, nine businessmen and two companies.

The CBI in its FIR had alleged that Sisodia and other accused public servants recommended and took decisions pertaining to the Excise Policy 2021-22 without the approval of competent authority with an intention to extend undue favours to the licencees post tender.

It said that Nair, Manoj Rai, former employee of Pernod Ricard, Amandeep Dhal, owner of Brindco Spirits, and Sameer Mahendru, owner of Indospirits, were actively involved in irregularities in the framing and implementation of the Excise Policy brought in November.

The agency had alleged Amit Arora, Director of Buddy Retail Pvt. Limited in Gurugram, Dinesh Arora and Arjun Pandey are "close associates" of Sisodia and were "actively involved in managing and diverting the undue pecuniary advantage collected from liquor licensees" for the accused public servants. The CBI had alleged that Radha Industries managed by Dinesh Arora received Rs 1 crore from Sameer Mahendru of Indospirits. The agency alleged that Sunny Marwah's Mahadev Liquors was granted L-1 licence under the policy. It also alleged that Marwah, who was on the board of firms of the deceased liquor baron Ponty Chadha, was in close contact with the accused public servants and regularly paid bribes to them.