Congress questions 'withdrawal' of Bank of Baroda auction notice for Sunny Deol's Juhu villa

The state-owned Bank of Baroda had put on the block a property owned by the actor to recover Rs 56 crore through an e-auction to be held on August 25.

Bank of Baroda's decision to withdraw the auction of BJP MP and actor Sunny Deol's bungalow for Rs 55.99 crore loan default a day after issuing a notice attracted criticism from the Opposition with the Congress asking who triggered the "technical reasons" for it to reverse the course.

As a furore followed over the notice and did not give any further details other than citing “technical reasons” for its action, the bank issued a statement saying the actor has offered to settle the dues. It said the auction notice was withdrawn after Deol agreed to settle dues as well as due to certain technical reasons.

The bank had on Sunday issued an e-auction notice and published advertisements in newspapers about auctioning 'Sunny Villa' on September 25 for default of dues. However on Monday, the Bank  said the e-auction notice published on August 20 “stands withdrawn due to technical reasons”.

This prompted Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh to tweet, "Yesterday afternoon the nation got to know that Bank of Baroda had put up the Juhu residence of BJP MP Sunny Deol for e-auction since he has not paid up Rs 56 crore owed to the Bank. This morning, in less than 24 hours, the nation got to know that the Bank of Baroda has withdrawn the auction notice due to 'technical reasons'."

"Wonder who triggered these 'technical reasons'?" he asked.

Congress Lok Sabha Whip and senior MP Manickam Tagore tweeted, "Bank of Baroda puts advertisement about Sunny Deol on loan non-payment and decides for e-auctioning of the BJP MP’s property for loan dues. Then realise Sahib and Sunny Deol's relationship. It withdraws. Is it exclusively reserved for the privileged BJP leaders and their close friends?"

As the bank issued a clarification, Ramesh said, “Undoubtedly, the public outcry and the media coverage has led the Bank of Baroda to issue a clarification on the so-called ‘technical reasons’ behind its withdrawal of its notice of yesterday regarding the property of BJP MP Sunny Deol. There will be no auction. Hopefully, there will be action in recovering the Rs. 56 crores owed to it by the BJP MP.”

Deol's latest movie Gadar 2 is running successfully in theatres and industry estimates show it has already grossed over Rs 300 crore since its release last week. He was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Gurdaspur in 2019, defeating the then Congress leader Sunil Jhakar, who later joined BJP and became its Punjab president.

The bank had already attached the 599.44 square metre property, which also houses Sunny Villa and Sunny Sounds, and fixed the reserve price for the auction at Rs 51.43 crore and an earnest money deposit of Rs 5.14 crore. His father and actor Dharmendra and Vijay Singh Dharmendra Deol are the guarantors of the loan.

In its notice, the Bank had said that the actor has the option of clearing the dues before the date set for the auction.