Please see this thread in the Indian Express online today...are we as a people really unworthy of the 'Corrupt' tag?
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems...adesh&Topic=0& In Volkswagen name, look who got 11 crore from Andhra
Tuesday July 12 2005 09:28 IST
NEW DELHI: Tucked in the bustling Community Centre market in south Delhi’s East of Kailash neighbourhood is House No 45. A narrow flight of stairs leads you to the basement below. This is the registered office of chartered accountants Vinod Dua and Associates and Vashishta Wahan Private Limited.
Vashishta Wahan is the firm where YSR Reddy’s Congress government in Andhra Pradesh pumped in 2 million Euros (about Rs 11 crore) in equity to ostensibly help set up a Volkswagen manufacturing unit in Vizag. (The firm’s initials are VW, the same as that of the global car giant).
So far so good. But Volkswagen says the deal is a fraud: it has nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan which passed itself off as its Indian arm. Helmuth Schuster, the man who was negotiating with the AP government, has been sacked by his German bosses. The TDP has demanded a CBI inquiry.
Andhra Pradesh Minister for Industries Bosta Satyanarayana confirmed to German radio ARD, which first reported the deal, that Andhra Pradesh Industries Corporation transferred the money to Vashishta Wahan following a state government order. He was not available for comment on Monday.
The Andhra Pradesh government had been negotiating with Volkswagen for more than a year on a manufacturing unit in Vizag. The chief negotiator for Volkswagen was Schuster.
In early January, the state government received a letter from Schuster. The letter, neatly typed on Volkswagen letterhead, confirmed that the company was going ahead with the project. For a joint venture with the government, Schuster sought transfer of 2 million Euros to Vashishta Wahan, a company affiliate.
Speaking to this website's newspaper from the company headquarters at Wolfsburg, Volkswagen spokesperson Thomas Mickeoeit said, "We have nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan. Volkswagen is interested in setting up a plant in India and we are still weighing the options. No decision has been taken so far."
He said Schuster was "sacked" by the company on June 15 as he was involved in a "bribery scam." Volkswagen has filed a complaint, Mickeoeit said, with the public prosecutor in Brunswick on June 28.
An independent investigation by this website's newspaper shows that Vashishta Wahan was registered with the Registrar of Companies by Ashok Jain, who was once Volkswagen’s India representative.
Jain, however, later wrote to the ROC in January, saying that he was stepping down as promoter and director—the company is now in the name of Bhuwan Kumar Chaturvedi of Gurgaon and Jagdeesh Alaga Raja of Chennai.
Jain told this website's newspaper, "I am in no way attached with Vashishta Wahan now and have never been associated with the company ever. I have my own hotel and mining business and am being dragged into this controversy."
Asked about the letter signed by him as in the registration records, he said, "Have you seen my photograph? There might be a million Ashok Jains."
He, however, confirmed his Schuster connection. "Yes, I have travelled to Andhra Pradesh with Schuster on a number of occasions in the past as I was working for Volkswagen as the chief advisor in India. However, my association with Volkswagen ended last year."
Mickeoeit, however, told this website's newspaper that Jain’s services were terminated in 2003.
At Vashishta Wahan’s registered address, the basement shop in Community Centre Market, R P Singh, Manager (Accounts) of Vinod Dua and Associates, says the company is one of their clients.
"When a company is registered, a lot of things have to be looked into. Vashishta Wahan is our client and our job was to render our professional expertise for getting the company registered."
Asked about the registered address, he said, "This is quite a common practice. When this company was formed, they did not have a place which is why this was made the registered address. The company was registered with an authorised capital of Rs 5 crore and the initial subscriber capital of Rs 1 lakh was equally shared by Bhuwan Kumar Chaturvedi of Gurgaon and Jagdeesh Alaga Raja of Chennai."
Singh directed this website's newspaper to the "administrative office" in Vasant Kunj, a south Delhi residential colony, which he said was Jain’s residence as well.
The proprietor of the Vasant Kunj office, Ravi Chand, said he did not have anything to do with Vashishta Wahan. "I am Jain’s lawyer and handle cases pertaining to his hotel business. This is my office," he said.
Raja was not available at his Chennai office. Chaturvedi said that he was just a technical director and had nothing to do with the "financial aspects" of the company. "I would have been involved had the plant been set up," he said.