Many amongst us would have heard or experience the ride in Volkswagen, but a delhi based firm has taken the german auto giant Volkswagen and the YSR Reddy government in Andhra for a ride. The firm Vashishta Wahan Private Limited with its registered office in Community Centre market in south Delhi’s East of Kailash neighbourhood has claimed to be the Indian representative of the German Auto Giant. Volkswagen has been long speculating on setting up its manufacturing in India and is in the process of zeroing on the location.

The Andhra Congress government pumped in close to 2 million Euros (about Rs 11 crore) in equity into Vashishta Wahan to apparently help set up a Volkswagen manufacturing unit in Vizag. But Volkswagen AG says the deal is a fraud and that it has nothing to do with Vashishta Wahan which passed itself off as its Indian arm. Helmuth Schuster, who was the chief negotiator from Volkswagen with the AP government, has been sacked.
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. It was later found out that Schuster has been bribed.
The interesting fact to be noted is that Vashishta Wahan’s initials are VW, the same as that of the global car giant….

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