Bank of Baroda withdraws auction notice for Sunny Deol's Juhu bungalow; Congress raises questions

Bank of Baroda, which had previously listed actor and Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol's Juhu bungalow for sale to recover a debt of Rs 56 crore, has now retracted the sale notice. In an updated statement, the bank cited "technical reasons" for the withdrawal of the e-auction notice.

"Corrigendum to e-auction sale notice dated 19.08.2023 published in The Times of India Mumbai edition dated 20.08.2023 with regards to sale notice in respect of Mr. Ajay Sing Deol Alias Mr. Sunny Deol stands withdrawn due to technical reasons," the statement reads.

The decision comes a day after Bank of Baroda advertised about e-auctioning of the actor’s property.

Meanwhile, Congress also 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 This morning, in less than 24 hours, the nation has got to know that the Bank of Baroda has withdrawn the auction notice due to 'technical reasons'.


Earlier, the state-owned bank had put Gadar 2 actor Sunny Deol's Mumbai property on e-auction for failing to pay back a loan of about Rs 56 crore and interest on that.

In the newspaper advertisement, that was widely circulated on social media, the bank said borrower Ajay Sing Deol alias Sunny Deol owes the bank about Rs 55.99 crore plus interest and cost from December 26 onwards less recovery up to date.

The bank, which attached the property, Sunny Villa located on the Gandhigram Road in the tony Juhu area of the megapolis, fixed the reserve price for the auction at Rs 51.43 crore and an earnest money deposit of Rs 5.14 crore.

Apart from the 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 his actor-politician father Dharmendra is the personal guarantor of the debt, according to the auction notice.

The tender notice further said the Deols still have the option of clearing the dues to the bank to prevent the auction to be carried out under the provisions of the Sarfaesi Act of 2002.

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 landslide margin defeating the then Congress member Sunil Jhakar. The seat for long was represented by another actor Vinod Khanna for the Congress.

With inputs from agencies