The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet before a special court in Chennai in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged sale of poor quality coal to PSUs, the federal probe agency said on Thursday.

The chargesheet has been filed against prime accused A.R. Buhari and six companies identified as Coastal Energy Private Limited (CEPL), Chennai; Coastal Energen Private Limited, Chennai; CNO DMCC, Dubai; CNO LLC, Dubai; Precious Energy Holdings Limited, British Virgin Islands; and Mutiara Energy Holdings Limited, Mauritius.

The case pertains to “overvaluation of coal prices whereby PSUs paid higher price for the purchase of lower quality of coal”, the ED said.

“All the six accused companies are managed, controlled and beneficially owned by Ahmed A.R. Buhari,” the ED said in a statement.

The court took cognisance of the chargesheet, filed under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), on April 29, the central agency said.

“The public sector undertakings (PSUs) were supplied coal of lower calorific value instead of the higher specification for which the tenders were floated and executed by the CEPL or MMTC and the coal was supplied by CEPL either directly or through MMTC on the strength of overvalued invoice for lower quality supported with fraudulent certificate of sampling and analysis (COSA) whereas the original COSA depicting the genuine quality of coal was suppressed,” the ED statement said.

Buhari “generated” proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 564.48 crore from the “overvaluation” of coal, the ED alleged. He “diverted” the proceeds of crime through various companies and finally integrated the amount to install a power plant through Coastal Energen, it said.