NEW DELHI: Sacked AAP minister Kapil Mishra alleged at a press conference on Friday that the Delhi government had allowed a company , Dashmesh CNG Impex, “formed by the owners of a fraud company”, to sell duplicate CNG kits in the capital. Mishra claimed that around 10,000 such kits have been installed in cars in 10 months, putting people’s lives and insurance policies at risk. This company sold Chinese CNG kits in the mar ket claiming they had been manufactured in Canada,” alleged Mishra.
According to Mishra, before Dashmesh was formed, its directors had formed a company, TA Gas, which had been issued a notice by the Delhi high court for allegedly selling duplicate parts. He said the company was subsequently closed in 2014 and the owners opened another company , Tech Gas Canada, which had the same address and email address as TA Gas. This company was authorised by the Delhi government 10 days after the odd-even exercise in April last year to install CNG kits in the capital.
Mishra claimed he had documents to prove that no such company existed in Canada and, in fact, there was a restaurant at the given address. “In a building in Dabri Chowk, these parts are assembled,” he claimed, showing photographs of what he claimed were the addresses provided.
The director of Mumbaibased Dashmesh CNG Impex, Tarlok Singh Talwar, rubbished Mishra’s allegations, threatening to lodge a case in court. “I am ready to come before the press. I challenge Mishra to prove that these CNG kits are fake. If he proves that, I will leave the CNG business.Otherwise, he will have to quit politics,” he told TOI over the phone from Mumbai.
Talwar claimed that Tech Gas Canada is not owned by them. “We import some CNG kits from that company besides several other companies in different countries,” he said.
Responding to Mishra’s allegations that Chinese CNG kits were being sold by Dashmesh, he said: ” A CNG kit is made of components procured from different countries, including China. Some components of our CNG kits are also made in China.”
Talwar claimed that TA Gas never existed. “We wanted to start a CNG kit company of that name, but before it could be launched, it ran into trademark infringement violations (with TA Gas, the brand name of another company),” he said. “The case was withdrawn after the parties entered into a compromise and we abandoned the idea of opening a company with this name. How can a company which was never established be a fraud?” he asked. He claimed that Dashmesh was opened in 1994, well before TA Gas, dismissing the documents Mishra had produced as “bogus”.
“We repair CNG kits which are being used in cars,” said owner Akshat Pandey . No such assembly unit was found when TOI inspected the one-room shop of the building. Mishra had released a photograph of the building where Pro CNG is located. Meanwhile, Mishra produced a document naming a company in China which, he alleged, was supplying “fake” CNG kits of many brands. He alleged that this was part of a big scam worth crores of rupees and linked to the Canada visit of some senior AAP functionaries. He said he would go to the anti-corruption branch on Monday to lodge an FIR in this connection.
