Congress questions Bank of Baroda’s “technical reasons” for withdrawing e-auction notice issued for Sunny Deol’s Juhu villa

New Delhi [India]: As the Bank of Baroda withdrew the ‘E-Auction Sale Notice’ of a residential property owned by BJP MP Sunny Deol citing “technical reasons”, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday raised suspicions, saying he wonders “who triggered these technical reasons?”

“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This morning, in less than 24 hours, the nation has got to know that the Bank of Baroda has withdrawn the auction notice due to ‘technical reasons’ Wonder who triggered these ‘technical reasons’?,” the Congress MP wrote on social media platform X, formerly called Twitter.

This comes after the state-owned bank, a day after issuing the e-auction notice for auctioning of actor Sunny Deol’s Juhu bungalow, withdrew it citing technical reasons.
“Corrigendum to E-auction sale notice dated 19.08.2023 published in the Times of India, Mumbai Edition (Pg.3) dated 20.08.2023 with regards to sale notice respect of Mr Ajay sing Deol Alias Mr Sunny Deol Stands withdrawn due to technical reasons,” the bank said in a fresh notice on Monday.

However, later in the day, BoB clarified about the “technical reasons” mentioned in the withdrawal of the sale notice published on August 19.

“The total dues did not specify the exact quantum of dues to be recovered. Secondly, the sale notice was based on a symbolic possession of the property as per Rule 8(6) of The Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules 2002,” the spokesperson of BoB said in a statement.

“An application has been made for physical possession by the Bank with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate on 01st August’2023, which is pending for permission. Since the unit is running as conveyed to us by the borrower, sale action will be initiated as per the provisions of the SARFAESI Act, once the physical possession is taken,” he said.

“In the meantime, 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. Accordingly, the sale notice is withdrawn as per the normal industry practice followed in other cases as well,” he added.

The Bank of Baroda issued a notice to the Gurdaspur MP for auctioning his villa in Mumbai’s Juhu citing non-payment of dues amounting to nearly Rs 56 crore, on August 19, 2023.