NI Bureau
The Bank of Baroda, a state-owned bank, announced today that the auction notice for the bungalow owned by actor and BJP MP Sunny Deol in Juhu, Mumbai, has been withdrawn.
The Bank of Baroda had initially planned to auction Mr. Deol’s property to recover ₹56 crore through an e-auction scheduled for August 25. This action was taken due to Mr. Deol’s default on a ₹55.99 crore loan from the Bank of Baroda since December 2022.
In a statement issued today, the Bank of Baroda explained, “The e-auction notice pertaining to the sale of Mr. Ajay Singh Deol, also known as Mr. Sunny Deol’s property, has been withdrawn due to technical reasons.”
The bank had already announced that the auction for the Juhu property, known as Sunny Villa, would start at ₹51.43 crore, with a minimum bid amount set at ₹5.14 crore.
Furthermore, the property spanning 599.44 square meters, which encompasses both Sunny Villa and Sunny Sounds, was also intended to be put up for auction. Sunny Sounds is a company that belongs to the Deol family and serves as the corporate guarantor for the loan. Dharmendra, Sunny Deol’s father who is both an actor and a politician, acts as the personal guarantor.
The notice issued earlier stated that the Deol family still had the option to settle their outstanding debt with the bank, thereby preventing the auction, as per the provisions of the SARFAESI Act of 2002.
In response to the bank’s actions, the Congress party posed questions regarding the reasons behind the withdrawal due to “technical reasons.”
“Yesterday afternoon, the nation learned that the Bank of Baroda had put up the Juhu residence of BJP MP Sunny Deol for e-auction due to his outstanding debt of ₹56 crore. This morning, in less than 24 hours, the nation was informed that the auction notice had been withdrawn by the Bank of Baroda due to ‘technical reasons.’ One wonders who is responsible for these ‘technical reasons’?” wrote Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on the platform known as X (formerly known as Twitter).
Prateeksha Thakur
