NEW DELHI, July 7: Indian police charged on Friday a former military attache and a US-based firm over a scam involving inflated prices for body-bags at the height in 1999 of the conflict in Kargil.

The Central Bureau of Investigation named two other army officers in the scandal — commonly known as the coffin case — which shocked India when an audit discovered they allegedly lined their pockets after ordering 500 aluminium caskets and 3,000 body-bags at inflated prices from the United States.

CBI officials said they have also charged the US-based supplier, Buitron and Braize, with criminal conspiracy in the 1.5-million dollar scandal.

They said now-retired major general Arun Roye, who was military attache in the Indian embassy in Washington at the time of the clashes seven years ago, would face trial along with the two army officers.

“A case of cheating and criminal conspiracy has been registered against those named and very soon our charge-sheet will be presented in court,” a senior CBI official said.

Some 1,000 combatants on both sides were killed when India launched a full-scale military assault to evict guerillas from Kargil peaks in 1999.—AFP