New Delhi, Jun 14 (IANS): The CBI on Wednesday conducted searches in 10 cities across five states as part of a probe against Kolkata-based Ramsarup Industries group accused of cheating the United Bank of India of Rs 184.43 crore.

The searches were carried out at Kolkata, Nagpur, Gurgaon in Haryana, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The Central Bureau of Investigation registered the case on Monday night against the promoters and directors of Ramsarup Industries Ltd: Ashish Jhunjhunwala, Naveen Gupta, Ayush Lohia, Lalit Mohan Chatterjee and Bimal K. Jhunjhunwala on a complaint of the bank.

The General Manager of IDBI, Debashish Sarkar (a former UBI employee), former Executive Director of Vijaya Bank Mohd Shahid and a retired IAS officer, Krishan Murari Lal, have also been named in the CBI case.

"All the persons are accused of cheating a Kolkata-based branch of the UBI bank to the tune of Rs 184.43 crore through the loan account of Ramsarup Utpadak (Unit-II) of Ramsarup Industries Ltd by diverting a sum of Rs 130.95 crore to a group company RAV Dravya Pvt Ltd," CBI spokesperson R.K. Gaur told IANS.