Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha member and former union minister Yashwant Sinha, arrested on Wednesday for locking up central government offices during office hours, was on Thursday produced before a court in Hazaribag that remanded him to judicial custody for 12 days.

Sinha was produced before the chief judicial magistrate after being booked under Section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences). He has been remanded to judicial custody till February 28.

The former external affairs minister as arrested along with over 150 BJP workers in Hazaribagh during an agitation, launched on February 13. The party's Hazaribag unit led by Sinha is spearheading a 'Save dignity of Hazaribag' agitation to protest the decision to close down two Regional Training Institutes of Direct Taxes and Central Excise and Customs in the district.

Hazaribag police superintendent Praveen Kumar Singh said on Thursday that the locks had been removed and the offices were functioning smoothly.

Alleging that the United Progressive Alliance government was deliberately ignoring his hometown, Sinha said he will not attend the budget session of Parliament unless his demands were met.