DRT moves to attach Vijay Choudhary’s Lokhandwala flat over ₹52.81-crore PNB dues of Zoom Vallabh Steel

The Debts Recovery Tribunal-I, Delhi, has begun proceedings to attach a residential property in Mumbai’s Lokhandwala Complex. The case concerns Punjab National Bank’s ₹52.81-crore recovery certificate against Zoom Vallabh Steel Ltd and its guarantors, including Vijay Choudhary, promoter of the Zoom group.

In a notice dated September 19 and published on Wednesday, Recovery Officer-II Niranjan Sharma directed the certificate debtors to appear before him on October 12 at 10.30 am. They must show cause why the property should not be attached. Until further orders, they are barred from creating any third-party interest in it.

The property is flats 905-906 in the Indra Darshan building near Millat Nagar, Lokhandwala, Andheri West. The same address is listed in the notice for Choudhary.

The recovery certificate, issued by the presiding officer of DRT-I Delhi, covers ₹52,81,08,555. It also carries pendente lite and future interest at 14.75% a year from April 16, 2012 until the dues are paid, plus ₹1.5 lakh in costs. The notice says the dues are payable jointly and severally and remain unpaid. The recovery case is numbered TRC/2105/2022.

The notice names four certificate debtors:

• Zoom Vallabh Steel, whose addresses include Indore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Dugdha in Jharkhand’s Saraikela-Kharsawan district
• Choudhary
• Varun Behari Lal Kejriwal, as legal representative of the late Behari Lal Kejriwal
• Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd

Zoom Vallabh Steel is an unlisted public company registered in Delhi, with Choudhary among its directors, according to company-registry data. The same records show its last balance sheet on file with the Registrar of Companies is for 2010-11.

Zoom Developers and Choudhary are at the centre of one of the country’s larger bank-loan fraud cases. The Enforcement Directorate arrested Choudhary in May 2017 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, in a case involving more than ₹2,600 crore of loans from 25 banks. He was accused of floating 485 companies in his own or associates’ names. When the ED sought custody, it told a special court in Indore that Choudhary had been absconding since 2013. His lawyer called the arrest illegal. By then the agency had attached assets worth ₹132 crore, including land in Bengaluru, Indore, Mumbai and Raigad.

PNB is among the lenders in suit-filed wilful-default listings against Zoom Developers, alongside other public sector banks. Those listings also name Behari Lal Kejriwal as a director.

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