New Delhi, July 7: The CBI has registered a criminal case in the coffin scam, charging three senior army officers and a US citizen with causing heavy loss to the exchequer through the purchase of substandard aluminium caskets and body bags during the 1999 Kargil conflict.

Charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption have been slapped on the recently-retired Major General Arun Roye, then military attach? in the Indian embassy in the US, Colonel S.K. Malik, who was director in the Master General Ordnance (MGO), Col F.B. Singh, then joint director in the MGO, and Victor Baiza, who owns M/s Buitrol & Baiza, the US firm that supplied the caskets and body bags at an exorbitant price.

Several inquiries were going on simultaneously on irregularities in the purchase of bullet-proof jackets, ammunition for T-72 tanks, AK-47 ammunition, gloves, sniper rifles, sleeping bags, surveillance radars and multipurpose boots. But the bureau decided to register the case after getting clear evidence of foul play in the purchase of caskets and body bags, sources said.

The coffin scam had rocked the nation after the comptroller and auditor-general reported flaws in the procurement of the caskets. But then defence minister George Fernandes had given a clean chit to it.

The caskets and body bags had allegedly been imported at the rate of about Rs 1.15 lakh per casket and around Rs 3,900 per body bag.