Debt Recovery Tribunal to auction Deccan Chronicle promoters’ private jet

C R Sukumar, ET Bureau | 30 Sep, 2014, 08.13PM IST 

HYDERABAD: In an embarrassment to the promoters of ailing media house Deccan Chronicle Holdings(DCHL), theDebt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) has decided to auction the eight-seater corporate jet in which the media house owners toured around the world for years. 

The move comes months after ICICI Bank, one of the key lenders of the media house, approaching the DRT accusing the DCHL promoters of defaulting on loans of some Rs 500 crore. 

The Hawker 400 is a twin-engine jet corporate aircraft, which was imported from the US based Raython Aircraft Company in 2007. 

During April last year, ICICI Bankhad moved a local court in Hyderabad against the Deccan Chronicle promoters after a cheque issued for Rs 350 crore by them bounced. ICICI was among dozen odd lenders that dragged the DCHL promoters to various courts involving defaults and cheque bounces. 

"DRT has ordered auctioning the corporate jet of Deccan Chronicle on June 2 and we have accordingly sought bids from interested parties through e-auction process," the tribunal appointed advocate commissioner K. Buchi Babu told ET. 

Babu said the reserve price was kept at Rs 9.75 crore and the bidders were asked to ensure an earnest money deposit of Rs 1 crore to participate in the e-auction, which is scheduled to take place on October 17. The said aircraft is currently at New Delhi's India Gandhi International Airport and the interested registered bidders would be permitted to inspect the aircraft prior to the auction on October 9. 

The publisher of English dailies Deccan Chronicle, Financial Chronicle and Asian Age and Telugu daily and weekly Andhra Bhoomi has been in news since July 2012 when its financial woes came to the fore. More than a dozen lenders, both public and private, knocked on the doors of various courts across the country and DRT seeking to recover their debts running into nearly Rs 4,000 crore. 

DCHL's lenders include host of financial institutions such as Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, IFCI, LIC, Axis Bank ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Future Capital, Religare Finvest, Kotak Mahindra Bank Tata Capital Ltd, PVP Capital Ltd, National Pension System Trust and Yes Bank Ltd, among others. 

Following the plea by one of the lenders, Canara Bank, which suspected an accounting fraud, the country's premier investigating body Central Bureau of Investigation last year initiated a probe into DCHL books and registered cases against the company and promoters. 

Several lenders have also moved against each other claiming rights over the assets mortgaged by the DCHL promoters including titles and trademarks of Deccan Chronicle, Asian Age, Financial Chronicle and Andhra Bhoomi. Some lenders even exercised the option over the assets charged to them and took possession of them after the company and promoters failed to clear their dues. 

To postpone auction, agent makes hoax call

S Ahmed Ali, TNN | Aug 2, 2013, 03.33 AM IST

MUMBAI: An estate agent from Kandivli, who made a hoax call to the police control room regarding a possible blast at the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) at the Income Tax building in Billard Pier to postpone a property auction verdict, was arrested by the crime branch on Thursday.

Alok Dinesh Tanna (29) thought that if he made a hoax call, the auction verdict, which was going in someone else's favour, would be postponed and he could manage to get a favourable order at the next hearing.

 But he ran out of luck when the police control room tracked the cell phone number from which he had made the call.

On July 26, Tanna anonymously called up the police control room and said he was passing off an important information that he had overheard. He said a bomb has been placed at the Debt Recovery Tribunal and it may go off anytime.

 "Within a few minutes, several police teams, including the bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) and sniffer dogs, were rushed to the spot. After three hours of search, nothing was found," said Subhash Sawant, senior inspector of unit 11.

The police registered an offence against unknown persons and the crime branch also conduced a parallel probe. 

During the course of investigations, police tracked down the cell phone number from which the hoax call was made.

"We traced the person in whose name the Sim card was registered. He said he was not using the number. However, we got some leads from there and picked up Tanna who runs an estate agency near Raghuleela Mall in Kandivli," said Niket Kaushik, additional commissioner of police (crime).

On Thursday, the police questioned Tanna on length. 

He finally admitted to have made the hoax call because he wanted to postpone a DRT auction order which was to take place on July 26

. "Tanna claims that the order was likely to go in other party's favour and hence to cancel or postpone the order he made this hoax call," said investigating officer Chimaji Adhav.


Tanna, who has been booked under various IPC sections for threatening, giving false information, endangering human life, has been remanded in police custody.