More than a year after a case of forgery and cheating was filed against Bhupendra Shah, director of Bhumiraj developers, the police arrested him on Wednesday. He was produced before a Panvel court which remanded him in police custody till February 15.

Ashok Dudhe, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone II, said they had already arrested four people, including a talathi from Karjat, in the case.

On December 3, 2018, Vikram Bhange, an official of Regal Habitat Pvt. Ltd., had filed a complaint with the Nhava Sheva police against Haroon Aleem Yusuf, chairman of Mohammad Yusuf trust in Panvel, Mr. Shah, Ramesh Bhalerao (54), a talathi from Karjat, and others.

According to the complaint, Abdul Patel, an official of the trust, had entered into a lease agreement for a 80-acre land at Gavhan in Nhava Sheva with Regal Habitat in 1998. While the complainant’s firm was the official lease owners of the land, it learnt in 2007 of Mr. Shah’s claims that he had purchased the land in 1995 for ₹4 lakh.

Mr. Bhange alleged that Mr. Yusuf had made a conveyance deed with Mr. Shah using back-dated papers of 1995, and to make the conveyance deed with the trust, Mr. Shah had produced a farmer’s certificate which said that he was a farmer and had an agricultural land in Latur. Mr. Bhalerao had allegedly posed as a witness for Mr. Shah to get the farmer’s certificate.

“To procure the farmer’s certificate, an agricultural land was purchased in Latur using a fake farmer who signed as Mr. Shah. We had arrested the fake farmer as well. Using the certificate Mr. Shah made the conveyance deed. The photo and signature on the farmer’s certificate is different from the one on the conveyance deed which shows that the ‘Bhupendra Shah’ who purchased the agricultural land in Latur is different from the one who did the deed,” Mr. Dudhe said.

The accused who were arrested earlier were Anil Sawant (45), Krishna Gawli (35), Mr. Bhalerao, and Satish Shirke (47). While Mr. Bhalerao and Mr. Shirke were arrested on December 6, 2019, Mr. Sawant and Mr. Gawli were arrested on December 20 and December 21, 2019. The police suspect involvement of more people in the case.