An FIR has been registered against the automobile industry brands Volkswagen and Audi in Noida for installing cheat devices in their cars in order to misrepresent the emissions. The carmakers are charged under cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.
A Noida resident Aniljit Singh has filed the FIR under Section 420 (cheating), section 463 (forgery), and Section 120A (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code against top officials in India and in their headquarters in Germany including Rahil Ansari, Brand Director, Audi India, Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India, and Bram Schot, Chairman, Audi AG.
The complaint has also mentioned the 2019’s Volkswagen emission scandal in which a mass lawsuit action was filed against the Volkswagen by thousands of German consumers. They had sought compensation over emission test cheating by the company. Volkswagen had already paid around €30bn across the globe including legal costs, fines, and compensations since the scandal came in limelight in 2015.
The company was convicted of installing the cheating software which lowered the harmful nitrogen emissions t misrepresent during the test conditions.
The complainant Aniljit Singh stated in his FIR that he had bought seven Audi cars which cost him crores of rupees. When asked, the company told him that there are no cheat devices installed, as in India’s emission norms were not as stringent and the country being a growing market for Audi, no such device was implanted.
The plaintiff had found that he has been duped for his hard-earned money after National Green Tribunal imposed an exemplary cost of Rs 500 crore in context to the finding that nitrogen emission was 5-8 times more than the permissible limit.
Aniljit alleged, “the accused persons had misrepresented the complainant by forging the documents and devices and caused wrongful gains to themselves and wrongful losses to the complainant. These officials had made wrong records to capture the market, with malafide intent and under a pre-planned conspiracy had induced and defrauded the complainant.”
He sought a thorough investigation into the allegations by a senior official.
