German car maker, Audi’s Chief Executive Officer, Rupert Stadler was arrested on Monday in an alleged connection with parent company Volkswagen's "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal.

The development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler's home after charging him with fraud and the falsification of documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.

The prosecutors said the arrest was justified because of the "risk of concealment of evidence."

This is the most high profile arrest in the ‘dieselgate crisis’ which dated back in the year 2015 when the Volkswagen group admitted to equipping around 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with defeat devices which were designed to deceive pollution tests. 

This is not the first time that the Chief Executive from Volkswagen is in the limelight, former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn stepped down after the scandal broke in 2015 and in  May 2018 he was charged in US court over the scandal. His successor Matthias Mueller was also replaced earlier this year. 

Next Interim Chief 

According to a media report, Volkswagen AG's board was unable to agree on a new leader for its Audi unit after more than six hours of debate on Monday, with some members balking at making a hasty choice after the unexpected arrest of the brand's longtime chief.

Plans by VW stakeholders to quickly appoint Audi sales boss Bram Schot as the unit's interim chief executive officer following the arrest of Rupert Stadler encountered resistance at a meeting of supervisory board members, and it's unclear when the situation will be resolved, according to people familiar with the matter.

Image Credit-  Autocar Professional