Following the lodging of an FIR against Volkswagen, Audi and officials in Noida for installing cheat devices, the company said its vehicles are compliant with applicable norms. The FIR was filed by Noida resident Aniljit Singh filed a complaint alleging that Volkswagen and Audi were installing cheat devices in their cars to misrepresent emissions in India
In a statement, Audi India said, "Audi India has not received any concern from Mr. Aniljit Singh. We will look into the matter as and when it is escalated to us. We wish to clarify that all VW group vehicles in India are compliant with applicable norms and the matter pertaining to alleged cheat device is sub-judice - pending before Hon'ble Supreme Court and the Supreme Court has passed an order of no coercive action against the company."
The FIR was filed against the top officials of Volkswagen and Audi in India and the headquarters in Germany. These include Rahil Ansari, Brand Director, Audi India, Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head, Audi India and Bram Schot, Chairman, Audi AG.
The FIR reviewed by IANS cites forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy under various sections of the IPC.
The complaint has cited the Global Emissions Scandal where VW was found to be installing a cheat device in its cars and in the absence of which the cars produced 10-40 times emissions beyond permissible limits.
In 2018, the complainant said he purchased 7 Audi brand cars worth crores of rupees. At the time of taking delivery, the complainant said he inquired if the cheat devices were installed in India and he was told by the company that they are not as in India emission norms are not as stringent and India being a growing market for Audi, no such device has been implanted.
The complaint says that the authorities in India observed that Audi cars emissions for nitrogen oxide were 5-8 times the permissible limits and after the National Green Tribunal imposed a penalty of Rs 500 crore on VW did the complainant realize that he had been duped of his hard earned money.
He alleged that the accused persons had misrepresented to 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 have induced and defrauded the complainant.
The complainant has demanded that the allegations may be thoroughly investigated by a senior official.