Officers of Bengal CID arrested him from Delhi on the basis of complaint lodged from Indian Railways.
Ruia, as the head of the group, faces charges of theft from the factory of Jessop and Co. Ltd, a closed engineering firm.
He has been booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), the officer said.
The Ruia Group also controls tyre maker Dunlop India Ltd, which too has suspended operations.
Ruia was asked to report at the CID headquarters repeatedly in Kolkata, but he did not turn up.
Ruia, his family and associates are the owners of Jessop but neither he nor his family members hold any position in it. They control Jessop through a maze of overseas companies. The Ruia Group has so far maintained that it has no control over the factory assets.
The police have accused Ruia of flouting a court order by not properly securing the factory's perimeter. "More than 70 places in the boundary wall are broken," said a CID officer.
Ruia had moved the High Court seeking quashing of the case filed against him by CID, claiming he is not the chairman of Jessop and he is neither the director nor a shareholder, or an occupier of Jessop and Co Ltd or any of its premises.
Former workers of the factory had alleged that the fire was part of a "conspiracy by a third party" following which the West Bengal government ordered a CID probe into the incident.
(With additional information from PTI and The Telegraph, Calcutta)