Indiabull's bid to auction DCHL property stalled

According to an employee, eight persons barged into the office and threatened the bidders of dire consequences

An auction by Indiabulls Housing Finance here to sell a residential property belonging to a promoter of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL) was thwarted by a group of persons on Tuesday afternoon.

According to an Indiabulls employee, eight persons barged into the office and threatened the bidders of dire consequences if they took part in the auction. Three bidders were present when the incident took place, according to the employee. Indiabulls had set a reserve price of Rs 14 crore for the property, the official added.

A couple of police constables from the nearby Punjagutta police station, however, came to the Indiabulls office later in the evening.

“We received a call saying that some quarrel was happening at Venkat Plaza (where the Indiabulls office is). Two of our constables were sent there and they are yet to come back to report what actually happened,” M A Hakeem, head constable at the police station, told Business Standard. He said all his superiors were out as part of the President’s security.

While a formal complaint is still to be filed with the police, the company official, who refused to be named, said the help came late though they made frantic calls to the police when the incident took place.

"We will lodge a formal complaint with the police as well as  inform the AP high court  on this incident. The high court had permitted us to auction the property," the company official told Business Standard. Three bidders were present in the office when the incident took place, according to him. The company had set a reserve price of Rs 14 crore for the property, he said.

The property that was to undergo auction is a residential house belonging to PK Iyer and is located on Road Number 3 in the upmarket Banjara Hills. It is one of the two properties taken into possession in July this year under the Sarfaesi Act  (The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Securities Act, 2002) by the Indiabulls group as part of the recovery of Rs 100 crore loan, which the DCHL management failed to repay. Iyer is one of the promoters of the company. The second property, also a residential house, is located at Somajiguda and is owned by DCHL chairman T Venkattram Reddy's mother.