New Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at over two dozen places including those of senior officials of SBI Mutual Fund, Unit Trust of India (UTI) and broker Ketan Parekh for allegedly duping the financial institutions of crores of Rupees in the latest stock market scam.

The officials and Parekh are accused of "off-market" and "insider" trading of shares of Padmini Technology Limited and Padmini Polymers Limited, resulting in heavy losses to general public and financial institutions.

The raids, which began yesterday (November 12), were completed this morning and the CBI sleuths recovered several documents from the residence and offices of Ketan Parekh and the then managing director of SBI Mutual Funds Niyamatullah.

The raids were carried out at 11 places in Kolkata, five places in Mumbai and 11 places in the national capital following registering of three fresh cases by the CBI's Bank Securities and Fraud Cell.

In the first FIR (first information report), the CBI has named 31 people including Parekh, Niyamatullah, then executive president of SBI Mutual Funds P R R Upadhay, proprietor of Padmini Technology Limited Vivek Nagpal, Chartered Accountant Kailash Chander and others for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy and duping UTI of Rs 60.9 crore by "insider" trading.

The FIR alleged that Parekh pledged 50 lakh shares of Padmini Technology to SBI by "off-market" trading and when the financial institution went in for its trading in the Stock Exchange Board, the shares were found much less than their face value of Rs 20 each.

PTI