The dealership allegedly delivered the car to someone else and accepted the loan from the bank that the deceased customer had applied for before passing away.
The car selling business takes a longer period for return of investment with lower profit margins. However, returns are huge in the long-term once the money gets rolling. Nevertheless, time and again certain dealerships try to cut corners in a frenzy to make a faster buck taking unethical means. In this particular case of Gurgaon, an Audi dealer went to a whole new level of bizarreness and sold a car to a dead man. Befuddled? So were we. Read on to understand the complete story.
As per a case registered with the UP Police, Zenica Autos, a part of Audi Gurgaon allegedly delivered a Q3 SUV to a dead customer. 35-year old Sandeep Yadav, a resident of Pitampura, Delhi had purchased an Audi Q3 from this dealer in Gurgaon taking a loan of Rs. 36 lakhs from the State Bank Of India (SBI) to buy the Rs. 43 lakh SUV. The luxury SUV was booked on 30th April 2014 and the loan was sanctioned subsequently. Unfortunately, Sandeep committed suicide on 1st May 2014 before the delivery of the SUV was ever made.
For obvious reasons, Sandeep never went on to accept the delivery of his Audi Q3. But the bank alleges that the showroom accepted the money from the bank and delivered the car to someone else. When the bank didn’t receive payments for the monthly instalments from the customer, they decided to launch an investigation only to find the customer deceased. The bank then filed an FIR with the Gurgaon Police and the primary probe has revealed that all those involved in the sale process are liable.
The Audi showroom personnel have now been booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). As unusual as it gets, incidents like these not only spoil the reputation of the auto company but also give customers serious trust issues.
