New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS): Tightening its noose in bank fraud cases worth Rs 7,000 crore, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday carried out searches at over 169 locations across the country.

A senior CBI official said the agency is conducting searches in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

The official said the agency has registered around 35 cases of frauds involving Rs 7,000 crore. The official, however, did not reveal the names of accused involved in the case.

He said the banks involved in the frauds (including consortium members) are Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, SBI, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India.

Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Noida, Baramati, Mumbai, Thane, Silvassa, Kalyan, Amritsar, Faridabad, Bengaluru, Tirupur, Chennai, Madurai, Quilon, Cochin, Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Chandauli, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Morena, Kolkata, Patna and Hyderabad are among the cities the searches are being conducted in.

This is not the first time the Central probe agency has carried out such a massive search operation. It has conducted several similar searches in bank fraud cases over the last few months.