CBI files charge-sheet in Volkswagen case, clean chit to Botsa

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed a 150 page charge-sheet in Nampally Court against six persons and a company, including Helmut Schuster  for their involvement in the Volkswagen-Vashishta Wahan scam which rocked the state in 2005.

The charge-sheet does not include the name of Panchayat Raj Minister Botsa Satyanarayana who was accused by the opposition to have been involved in the Two Million Euro scam.

The CBI chargesheet named Helmut Schuster, Ashok Kumar Jain, Messrs Vashishta Wahan Pvt Ltd, Jagadeesh Alaga Raja, Gayathri Chandravadanan, BK Chaturvedi and Joseph V George.

According to CBI officials, the case came to light at the time when the state government was negotiating with Volkswagen AG, Germany, for setting up a car manufacturing project in Andhra Pradesh. 

Dr Helmut Schuster, along with the other accused conspired and cheated the government by making it believe that M/s Vashishta Wahan Pvt Ltd is an Indian nominated Company of M/s Volkswagen AG Germany. The accused led the government to participate in Equity to the tune of Rs 11,67,40,000 (2 million Euros). 

The case came to light when Volkswagen AG denied that Vashishta Wahan was its subsidiary and it was a fake company.

The opposition seized on the chance and targeted Mr Satyanarayana by saying that he was the brains behind the fake company.

The then Principal Secretary to the state government had filed a complaint with the CBI which took up investigations.

Investigation was carried out in India, Germany and Switzerland by sending Letter Rogatory and vital evidence showing the complicity of the accused was collected.

During investigations Rs 5 crore of the above 11.67 crore were recovered. 

The CBI examined 59 witnesses during the investigations. In all, 95 documents supporting the charge-sheet running into 3,000 pages was filed before the Court of XIV Addl Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Hyderabad.