New Delhi, May 22 (IANS): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a status report on the NSE co-location scam, informed the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that its investigation was not restricted to the FIR which was initially registered.

The CBI said that in case any fact emerges that the "NSE/SEBI/Department/Ministry or any private person/public servant irrespective of office he was holding during the relevant period, if found part of conspiracy", that particular individual or entity will be investigated in accordance with the law.

Therefore, the CBI has come on record that the scope of the investigation can possibly go beyond the FIR in order to unearth the larger conspiracy in the scam.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had directed the CBI to submit a status report on May 22 on its investigation.

A PIL filed by petitioner Shantanu Guha Ray, represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, contended that abusing its market position, the NSE helped deviant brokers and politicians make alleged illegal gains, risking the institutional set-up of exchanges.

The petition also alleged that SEBI failed to take stringent action against such errant brokers from the NSE, it's own officers who were involved and other culpable persons.

The scam basically alleges market manipulation at the NSE. It has been alleged that only a few select players got access to the market-price information, before anybody else could.

This helped the deviant brokers to make wrongful gains, which allegedly ran into thousands of crore.