A father-son duo has been held in Patna in connection with a fake stamp paper racket at Calcutta High Court. For the past few years, the two have allegedly been printing stamp papers and circulating them in the court with the help of their associates.

A police team has left for Patna to bring the father and son to the city on transit remand. They will be produced in a city court on Tuesday.

The cops stumbled upon the racket on Friday following the arrest and interrogation of five people in the city on the basis of a complaint by the Lawyers’ Clerks Association of the high court. The lawyers’ clerks stated that the Rs-20 stamp papers used in three petitions were found to be fake.

Investigations suggest that the racket had minted lakhs by selling counterfeit stamp papers that were used to file affidavits or for registration work at the high court. According to the investigators, the five held in the city passed off the fake stamp papers as original in the guise of lawyers’ clerk.

“Once the father and son reach the city, we will grill them and crosscheck their accounts with those of the five. It is difficult to find out the extent of this fraud unless we cull out the details,” said a senior officer of Hare Street police station, where the complaint was lodged.

The five held in the city include 42-year-old Joydeb Karmakar, his wife Sushmita, Sukumar Patra and Shantanu Das.

Patra had allegedly gone to the court’s oath commissioner (who affirms affidavits before a case is filed with the high court) and placed three petitions for affirmation on Friday afternoon.

While going through the petitions, the oath commissioner detected a difference in colour of the stamp papers that were used in the affidavits.

In the face of interrogation, Patra revealed the names of his associates.