The Congress on Monday raised questions about the Bank of Baroda withdrawing the e-auction notice for the Juhu bungalow of BJP MP Sunny Deol, asking who triggered the”technical reasons" for the withdrawal.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said,”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 This morning, in less than 24 hours, the nation has got to know that the Bank of Baroda has withdrawn the auction notice due to ‘technical reasons’."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’?" he said. The Bank of Baroda on Monday said the process is withdrawn due to technical reasons.
BRS leader and Telangana state renewable energy development corporation (TSREDCO) chairman Y Sathish Reddy also reacted the bank’s move.
“In less than 24 hours the Bank of Baroda issued an auction notice against BJP MP #SunnyDeol’s bungalow, alleging non-payment of dues worth Rs55 crore. Astonishingly, the bank promptly retracted the notice, conveniently attributing it to ‘Technical Reasons’,” he tweeted.
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But in a similar notice on Monday, Bank of Baroda said the e-auction notice published on August 20”stands withdrawn due to technical reason”.
When contacted, the bank did not offer any reason for the withdrawal of the notice.
While Sunny Deol’s team had confirmed the auction notice on Sunday, they said that the amount mentioned was not correct and also mentioned that the actor would be clearing the dues in a day or two.
The Gurdaspur MP, 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 and interest and penalty, since December 2022, the second largest state-owned lender said in a public tender on Sunday.
The actor is officially known as Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol and has been representing the ruling BJP from the Punjab seat since 2019 when he won the seat with a big margin defeating the then Congress member Sunil Jhakhar.