Quick question on check engine light due to emissions

Hello, I recently went to look at a 1999.5 tdi Jetta 5spd, the owner removed the muffler and egr to get better fuel mileage so i was told the car has 0 emissions. This scares me because I would need to get the car inspected and don't think I would be able to due to the check engine light from the deleted emissions. So my question is, is there a way to fool the system and get the check engine light to turn off ? The car has 290k on it which is kind of scary as well but I will just be using it to commute back and forth to work and he is asking 1500$ The owner has had it for 6 years and has done all the matience and seems to know the car quite well. Thanks for any replys.

Long story short: nope.... the system is deliberately designed to detect tampering.

If you reset the check engine light internal flags called "readiness bits" will be cleared, and they can only be set by driving, during which the ECU will re-detect that the EGR system is not functioning properly and turn the CEL back on.

The CEL system was legislated into place specifically to monitor emission control systems so it's pretty smart about detecting tampering and, specifically, not letting one simply clear the light just before an inspection.

Reinstalling an EGR system (ECU doesn't care about the muffler) or having a performance tune installed that deletes the ECU's EGR check are really the only two options. Some jurisdictions also do a physical inspection for EGR systems.

Is it difficult to reinstall the egr system

No, pretty straightforward.