Properties worth about Rs 100 crore owned by actor-turned politician A Vijayakant, his wife V Premalatha and his educational trust has been put on auction by the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for non-payment of a Rs 5.52 crore loan.
The loan was availed by the DMDK leader's Andal Azhagar Educational Trust, and Vijayakant and Premalatha were the sureties, providing their properties as security to the bank. According to the IOB's public notice, the properties would be auctioned off on July 26.
The minimum price of the Trust's property at Mamandur in Kanchipuram district is fixed at about Rs 92 crore, the residential property of Vijayakant in Chennai is at about Rs 4.25 crore and his vacant residential plot is fixed at about Rs 3.04 crore.
Premalatha was quoted by the Indian Express as saying, “We borrowed the money for expanding the college. This happens to every college and is a trifling issue. I will repay the money before July 26 since admissions will commence by then." She also added that they would take legal recourse in the matter. Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) was founded by Vijayakanth as a political party in 2006.
Vijayakant's DMDK contested from four Lok Sabha constituencies this 2019 elections with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) but failed to win any seats. Notably, after several rounds of talks with different political parties, DMDK had finally aligned itself with the NDA.
During the 2011 Assembly Elections, DMDK emerged as a formidable party in the state, winning 29 of the 41 seats it contested. It became the second largest party in the state, next only to its ally AIADMK and pushing DMK to third position. In 2014 Lok Sabha, it joined the NDA alliance and lost all 14 seats to AIADMK candidates.
Vijayakant has not been active in politics due to his health and Premalatha, who is also DMDK's treasurer, is now managing the party.
(With inputs from IANS)