NEW DELHI: The Delhi police informed a city court Thursday it has lodged an FIR in a case relating to allegations against Hyundai Motors India that it cheated its customers by inducing them to install CNG kit from CEV engineers, else their warranty will be void.
Submitting a compliance report before Metropolitan Magistrate Siddhartha Malik, police said it has registered a case under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal code. The maximum punishment for the offences is seven years.
The FIR was lodged pursuant to the court's October 22 order on a complaint filed by a customer.
"CEV Engineers Pvt Ltd is not only acting illegally but have conspired with Hyundai to sell CNG kits by exploiting its legal title with an intention to cheat customers and extort money by illegal means... This is a well planned and illegal design to make illegal financial gains while playing with citizen safety and security...," according to the complaint.
The complainant, advocate Vinay Kumar Jain, said he had purchased a car manufactured by Hyundai Motors India in March this year.
He has alleged that he was informed by the car manufacturer that he had to get CNG installed from CEV Engineers only, otherwise he would not be provided warranty for his vehicle.
He has further alleged that the CNG kit that was installed turned out to be defective which was not rectified even after repeated visits to the service centre.
Jain said that though CEV Engineers was an independent company approved by the Transport Department of the Delhi government for CNG kit installation, it was being advertised that the company was being managed by Hyundai Motors India.
He claimed that the documents related to approval by the Transport Department do not show anywhere that CEV Engineers is required to install CNG kits only in the vehicles manufactured by Hyundai.
The court had earlier said: "From the record it appears that prima facie the general public is being deceived by depicting that CEV Engineers is the only authorised company to fit CNG kit in the vehicles of Hyundai Motors.
"Further the general public is being dishonestly induced to obtain CNG kit from CEV Engineers only by threat of warranty being void if they installed the kit from any other authorised centre as approved by the transport department of the state government."
The court further said that considering the nature and complexity of the offence and the capacity of the accused to manipulate relevant record, a thorough investigation was required in the matter by the police authority.