According to police, Acharya was arrested on a complaint registered by one Khanvilkar at Jogeshwari police station on Wednesday. He has been charged under Sections 420, 406 and 32 of Indian Penal Code, police confirmed.

Khanvilkar in his complaint stated that Acharya had cheated him to the tune of Rs 5.6 lakh after he had deposited money with C U Marketing, a finance agency owned by Acharya. Similar complaints have been lodged against him at Malabar Hill, D N Nagar and Vile Parle police stations, police sources said.

A senior police officer added Acharya's antecedents are being checked and all the complaints are being transferred to Jogeshwari police station. The fraud could well be in the region of Rs 400 crore, the officer said.

As proprietor of C U Marketing, Acharya had launched several schemes under which the depositors'money doubled after a period of six to eight months. The scheme had attracted a large number of investors, including many employees of companies owned by Acharya himself.

However, since the last one year, the company had allegedly defaulted in repayment of the matured amount to investors. Last fortnight, the company had published full-page public notices in all publications of the Veto Power group promising that all investors would be repaid their money at Jal Hotel off Western Express Highway near Santacruz airport.

However, when the company failed to repay yet again, over 1,000 investors gheraoed Jal Hotel and resorted to stone-pelting, causing a crisis situation. Police had to resort to a mild lathi-charge to disperse the agitated investors.

The other papers published by Acharya are Mumbai Sandhya (published in three languages), A-Z of Politics and Marathi Daily.

Acharya was also allegedly shot at by Chhota Rajan gangsters at Andheri east on February 19 last year. His bodyguardTiwari was killed in the attack.