MUMBAI: Bank of Baroda on Monday withdrew the decision to auction the bungalow of Bollywood actor Sunny Deol in Mumbai due to technical reasons and said that actor has approached the bank to settle dues.
In a public notice on Sunday, the state-owned bank had said it would e-auction ‘Sunny Villa’ in the Juhu area of the city on September 25. But in a similar notice on Monday, the bank said the e-auction notice published on August 20 "stands withdrawn due to technical reason."
“The borrower has approached the Bank for settling the dues as per the sale notice published on 20th August’2023, where the borrower/guarantors were notified that they are entitled to redeem the securities by paying the outstanding dues/costs/charges and expenses at any time before the sale is conducted,” said a spokesperson for the bank.
“Accordingly, the sale notice is withdrawn as per the normal industry practice followed in other cases as well,” the spokesperson added.
The Gurdaspur Member of Parliament, whose latest movie Gadar 2 is a box office success having already grossed over Rs 300 crore since the release last week, has been in default on a Rs 55.99 crore loan from the bank, interest and penalty, since December 2022.
As per Sunday’s notice, the bank, which has attached the property, had fixed the reserve price for the auction at Rs 51.43 crore and an earnest money deposit of Rs 5.14 crore. The notice had further said the Deols had the option of clearing the dues of the bank to prevent the auction, under the provisions of the Sarfaesi Act 2002.
Apart from Sunny Villa, the 599.44 square metre property also houses Sunny Sounds, which is owned by the Deols, and is the corporate guarantor to the loan, while Sunny’s actor-politician father Dharmendra is the personal guarantor of the debt, according to the auction notice.
Sunny Deol has been representing BJP from the Gurdaspur seat of Punjab since 2019.