A lawyer was arrested on Monday night on charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and unauthorised use of blue beacon on his vehicle.

Police said Sanatan Roy Chowdhury, the accused, was masquerading as a CBI counsel as well as the state’s standing counsel in a purported attempt to sell a property in south Calcutta’s Mandeville Gardens.

A resident of 8 Mandeville Gardens lodged a complaint with Gariahat police station alleging that a man who had introduced himself as the state’s standing counsel and CBI counsel apparently possessed forged documents to establish his claim on a part of the property.

The accused allegedly intended to hand over the documents to a developer without the knowledge or consent of the owner of the property.

“We contacted the competent authority in the state judicial department and found that there was no state standing counsel called Sanatan Roy Chowdhury. We also asked the CBI about the person. They, too, said there was no CBI counsel by that name,” said an officer at Lalbazar.

The police found a board at the Mandeville Gardens premises that mentioned Roy Chowdhury as the state’s standing counsel and legal receiver of the property.

An officer said they had dialled a phone number mentioned on the board and found that it did not belong to any state government office.

During inquiry, the police found that Roy Chowdhury allegedly in connivance with a woman and a purported developer had forged court papers and posed as the “receiver” of the property after the death of the complainant’s father. The accused claimed he had the power to sell the property to a developer.

After his arrest on Monday, the police apparently found Roy Chowdhury’s Ford EcoSport at a location in north Calcutta based on his statements. The vehicle was fitted with a blue beacon and had multiple boards claiming the car belonged to the state standing counsel and the CBI counsel.

The resident of Mandalpara in Baranagar was produced in court on Tuesday and remanded in police custody.

This was the third case in recent past in which an accused was allegedly found using a beacon on his car illegally.

Vaccine scam accused Debanjan Deb, who had allegedly posed as an IAS officer, is said to have been found in possession of a car flaunting a blue beacon last month. Days later, another man, who was arrested on the charge of posing as a central vigilance officer, was allegedly found in possession of a beacon-fitted vehicle on Theatre Road.