Police on Sunday arrested Arun Maheshwari, husband of former CPM parliamentarian Sarala Maheshwari, and their son-in-law Amitabh Kejriwal on the charge of fraudulently running a company in the name of a couple and forging PAN cards.

The two have been arrested following a complaint lodged by the couple — Shankar and Pragati Bhattacharya — with Electronic Complex police station in Salt Lake on Saturday. Arun and Amitabh have been remanded in police custody till June 19.

According to police, Shankar worked in one of Arun’s companies from 1996 to 2008. “During this period, Arun had asked Shankar and Pragati to sign on blank papers, saying they would be entitled to the Employees’ State Insurance,” said Subrata Bandopadhyay, deputy commissioner of police, headquarters, Bidhannagar.

The land and land reforms department zeroed in on the Salt Lake-based Simar Land and Commercial Pvt Ltd and its directors, Shankar and Pragati, around six months ago during a probe into the functioning of companies dealing in properties.

Arun Maheshwari (left) and Amitabh Kejriwal at the Bidhannagar sub-divisional court on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

“The department found that the company owns 400 acres in New Town. When asked about the land, the couple said they had no clue that they were directors of a company,” said an officer investigating the case.

The cops questioned Shankar and Pragati following an alert from the land and land reforms department. “The couple’s standard of living indicated that they could not be directors of a company,” said an officer.

During interrogation, the couple recalled how they had been led to sign on blank papers by Arun Maheshwari.

“The evidence we had collected revealed that Arun and Amitabh used to run the company. They had forged the couple’s signatures and also prepared forged PAN cards in their names,” said the officer.

Amitabh had been arrested in March last year on the charge of forging the deed of a plot in Kaikhali.

Sukumar Santra of Benchmark Developers Private Limited, a Salt Lake-based realty company, had lodged a complaint in October 2010 with Barasat court.

Santra had alleged that Kejriwal’s company, Canopy Infrastructure Developers Private Limited, had forged documents related to a four-cottah plot that Benchmark had purchased and tried to take possession of.