IIT panel to look into Volkswagen, says Nitin Gadkari

The government will set up a committee of experts from IIT to look into Volkswagen’s emission-test cheating case before deciding on any penalty on the German auto major, which is recalling 3,23,700 cars in India.

“The road transport ministry will be forming a committee of IIT experts. The committee will be tasked to analyse and understand the VW issue and submit the findings to the ministry,” road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters here on the sidelines of a CII event.

When asked what action will be taken against the company, he said, “The committee will be formed in a day or two and findings will be submitted within a month or two. Any decision will be taken after that.” On Monday, Volkswagen group had announced the recall of 3,23,700 vehicles sold in India between 2008 and 2015 across its three brands — Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen after a government-ordered probe found violations on the part of the company.

Union heavy industries minister Anant Geete had said that tests by ARAI found that Volkswagen violated emission norms in India to the extent of eight to nine times of the current levels. “The violation was detected when the on-road vehicles were tested. It is a well thought-out crime.” VW had however refuted the claim and stated that its cars sold in India are not equipped with the ‘defeat device’ and they did not violate BS-IV emission norms in the country but added that it would start recall of the vehicles in India in the first quarter of 2016.

The auto maker has been found to have deployed this device to cheat on emission tests in cars sold in various countries.