New Delhi: CBI has brought to the notice of a court here about a Rs 150 crore fraud played on the State Trading Corporation of India by a Delhi-based firm in the purchase of metal scrap.

The investigating agency supplied the copy of the FIR to the court accusing Metro Machinery Traders (MMT), a partnership firm, of inducing the STCIL in making an advance payment of Rs 149.79 crore (rpt Rs 149.79 crore) for the purchase of scarp from Tamil Nadu-based PSU Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd (NLCL).

The FIR lodged on the complaint of the STCIL said that MMT induced it to pay the amount on the basis of false and fabricated documents relating to the partners of the firm and its financial position.

The FIR, lodged this year, alleged that the MMT s five partners-- Harish Nagpal, Ram Kishan, Mahesh Kumar, Harsih Dargan and Aqeel Baksh-- all hailing from the capital, filed a false and over-valued report of the scrap with the STCIL after they won an on-line bidding conducted for sale of the scarp.

The case, which was being probed earlier by the Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police, was later transferred to the CBI following the recommendations of the Commerce and Industry and Home Affairs ministries.

The STCIL, engaged in trading and exports of various materials, sought prosecution of all the five partners, the government-approved valuers and others under various penal provisions of the IPC dealing with cheating, impersonation, fraud and misrepresentation.

Source : PTI