After a slew of banks which have initiated legal proceedings against the beleaguered Deccan Chronicle Holdings (DCHL), it is now the turn of Andhra Bank to approach the debt recovery tribunal (DRT), Hyderabad, against the DCHL management for loan default. Sources told FE that the bank is likely to file its petition in the DRT in the third week of January.
The bank, which has an exposure of R200 crore to DCHL, had previously said that the due date for repayment was November. According to sources, the DCHL management failed to respond to the bank?s notices, which were issued after the due date. Andhra Bank was also part of a consortium to find a solution to bail out the company. ?This attempt failed and there could be issue of multiple mortgage in this case as well,? said an official from the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The CMD of the bank, BA Prabhakar, was unavailable for comment. However, he has previously said that the loan to DCHL was fully secured by tangible properties and that the bank would take recovery steps after the lapse of the due date.
Recently, Canara Bank, which had an exposure of R347 crore, had also filed legal proceedings in DRT against DCHL management.
