Indian Overseas Bank has issued a public notice saying that properties worth Rs 100 crore belonging to actor and DMDK leader Vijayakanth and his wife Premalatha will be auctioned on July 26 to recover loans worth Rs 5.5 crores that they owe the bank.
The property to be auctioned will include Vijayakanth’s palatial house in Saligramam, Chennai, which is reportedly worth Rs 4.25 crores, a residential plot worth Rs 3 crores and the Andal Azhagar Educational Trust belonging to Vijayakanth and Premalatha, which includes an engineering college built on 49 acres of land in Mamandur village in Kancheepuram. They had availed the loan from IOB to expand the college, providing their properties as security to the bank.
In its press release, the bank said that the three prime properties will be auctioned to recover the loan amount. Speaking to the press recently, Premalatha was confident about repaying the debt before July 26, and said that engineering college admissions will commence before the auction date. “We borrowed the money for expanding the college, and about Rs 5 crore is yet to be repaid. We had asked for two months’ time to repay but the bank has said that they have given us a lot of time already and they need to take action. It’s been 20 years since we started the college and we had pledged property within the city for obtaining the loan. This happens to every college and is a trifling issue,” she said.
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Vijayakanth is a Tamil film actor, director and producer, and has worked on close to 150 films. He founded the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 2006, with Premalatha as the treasurer of the party.
In the 2011 assembly elections, they joined hands with AIADMK and won 29 of the 41 seats and became the second biggest party in the state, next only to ally AIADMK. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, DMDK allied with National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but didn’t win any seats. In the 2019 general elections, they allied with AIADMK-BJP and contested from four seats after many rounds of negotiations but did not win any.