Guwahati, March 6: The CBI has filed a chargesheet against seven persons, including three Hindustan Paper Corporation Ltd officials, for alleged irregularities in the purchase of coal for the Cachar Paper Mill in Hailakandi district.

The alleged scam took place in 2012.

An official source told The Telegraph that during investigation, the CBI found that despite abundant coal available in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, which is about 130km from the paper mill at Panchgram, some HPCL officials allegedly conspired with a few private persons to purchase low quality coal from Garo hills in Meghalaya, which is around 650km from the mill, thereby causing financial loss to the tune of over Rs 89 lakh to the corporation.

The source said the chargesheet, which was submitted at a special CBI court here recently, contains names of three HPCL officials, who were Ashim Bhattacharjee, the then manager (commercial) of the paper mill, Pratap Goswami, the then chief executive of the paper mill, and Tapan Kumar Das Purkayastha, the then deputy general manager (finance) of the mill.

Others whose names figured in the chargesheet were Vipin Singhal, director of M/s Mahalaxmi Mining Pvt. Ltd, Ramnath Prasad, authorised representative of National Transport Company, Lingdho G. Momin, proprietor of M/s Momin Coal Agency and Naveen Singhal alias Naveen Kumar Gupta, director of M/s Mahalaxmi Continental Pvt. Ltd.

This particular case was registered and investigated by the CBI's anti-corruption branch in Shillong.

The case was registered by the CBI on the basis of a written complaint filed by one M.R. Barbhuiya, president of the Sramik Kalyan Samity of the paper mill, on January 1, 2013, alleging corruption in purchasing of coal for the mill from Garo hills in Meghalaya.

In the complaint, it was stated that because of the "unreasonable" purchase of coal from Garo hills, the mill incurred huge financial loss and was now on the verge of closure.

The complainant alleged that some officials of the mill were involved in the scam.

The CBI probe also revealed that in the name of supplying coal from Garo hills, M/s Mahalaxmi Continental Pvt. Ltd had allegedly cheated the corporation by supplying coal from Nagaland.