New Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI): CBI today carried out searches at office and residence of a Deputy Commissioner, Income Tax after registering a case against him for allegedly taking bribe running into crores of rupees during the department's probe into the Rs 500-crore Stock Guru scam.

CBI sources said Yogendra Mittal, an IRS officer of 2006 batch, had conducted search operations at various locations in connection with Stock Guru scam during January 2011 but they were allegedly not genuine.

They alleged that illegal gratification taken by the officer could be anywhere between Rs one crore to Rs 15 crore.

The alleged perpetrators of Stock Guru scam--Ulhas Prabhakar Khaire and his wife Raksha--were arrested by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing in November last year, nearly 22 months after dubious searches carried out by the Income Tax officer, the sources said.

A team of CBI officials searched the residential premises of Mittal at Kaushambi, Ghaziabad as well as his office today, CBI sources said here.

The officer was booked for criminal conspiracy and under Prevention of Corruption Act. It was alleged that officer led searches against the company Stock Guru with the intention of extracting illegal gratification, they said.

Khaire and Raksha were arrested for allegedly duping around two lakh investors from seven states of nearly Rs 493 crore by promising them high returns on their investment through their firm Stock Guru dealing in shares.

The couple had floated the firm in 2010 and allegedly lured people to invest in it promising highly lucrative returns of 20 per cent per month followed by a subsequent refund of the principal amount in the seventh month, through source based investments in the share market.