 "Bollywood actor Sunny Deol | Photo: ANI")
Bank of Baroda has retracted its notice to auction Sunny Deol’s property in Juhu, a suburb of Mumbai, citing technical reasons, even as the actor has approached the public sector lender to settle dues.
The bank had issued the notice (dated August 19, 2023) as a means to recover a sum of ~56 crore through an e-auction that was scheduled for September 25, 2023. The property in question, known as Sunny Villa, occupies an area of 599.44 square metres on Gandhigram Road in Juhu. Deol is also Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab.
Elaborating on the technical reasons for withdrawing the notice, a Bank of Baroda spokesperson said that the total dues did not specify the exact quantum to be recovered. And secondly, the sale notice was based on a symbolic possession of the property under Rule 8(6) of the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules 2002.
The bank submitted an application to the chief metropolitan magistrate on August 1 for physical possession of the property, but the application is pending permission. Since the unit was operational as conveyed to Bank of Baroda by the borrower, sale would be initiated according to the provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, after the physical possession, the lender said.
The spokesperson said that the borrower had approached the bank to settle the dues. The manager assigned for Sunny Deol corroborated the move.
The sale notice (published on August 20) alerted the borrower/guarantors that they were entitled to redeem the securities by paying the outstanding dues, costs, charges and expenses at any time before the sale is initiated. Sunny Sounds and Dharmendra Singh Deol are guarantors to the loan, according to the auction notice. The sale notice was withdrawn in accordance with the practice followed in other cases as well, the spokesperson added.
