CBI on Thursday carried out searches at 15 locations across the country, including offices of National Sport Exchange Limited in Mumbai, in a case of alleged irregularities in investments by state-run trading company PEC causing a loss of Rs. 120 crore.

The searches were carried out after the agency registered a case of alleged criminal conspiracy to cheat a public sector unit (PEC) in the matter of floating fraudulent paired contracts for trading of agro-commodity on the platform of NSEL, without actually undertaking any genuine trade.

CBI alleged this caused a loss to the government to the tune of Rs. 120 crore (approx).

The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating forgery and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

They said searches started this morning at 15 locations which included four in Mumbai, two in Karnal and nine in Delhi.

The searched locations included residential premises of five PEC officials, two of NSEL officials and one of private persons.

Seven offices of NSEL and six offices of counterpart in PEC transactions are being searched as part of the operation, they said.

About Rs 343 crore of state-owned trading firms MMTC and PEC is stuck with the crisis-ridden National Spot Exchange which has to settle nearly Rs. 5,400 crore with 148 entities including many brokerage firms.

NSEL promoted by Jignesh Shah-headed Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL), was hit by crisis after it suspended trade on July 31 last year following a government directive, raising concerns about possible default of Rs. 5,600 crore due to about 13,000 investors, including 7,000 small ones. (PTI)