Feroz Khan in woe over cash he owes

MUMBAI: Maybe this will need a qurbani by Feroz Khan. The Karnataka high court has upheld the attachment of his movable assets by the Bangalore civil court for non-payment of money owed to Salim Khan, a Mumbai businessman.

The court told Feroz Khan to either pay Salim Khan or reconcile with him in any possible manner.

But the actor-director did not seem to take the news seriously. “Is this some kind of joke? This is unbelievable,” he told DNA.

The story goes back to the mid-1980s, when a 9 acre plot was allotted to Khan in a Bangalore industrial zone by the Karnataka Industrial Development Board. The actor failed to develop the plot in the mandatory two years and was questioned by the KIDB in 1994.

He then approached Salim Khan to take over the development for which Feroz Khan would organise the requisite permissions. He took Rs11 lakh from Salim Khan as a token. But nothing moved and the latter filed a case in the Bangalore city civil court in 1997.

The film-maker did not respond to the summons sent to him for six years but approached the court for a stay. He was told to either submit a bank guarantee for the decree amount or settle the matter out of court. He did neither. So the case went to the high court.

Though the court has ordered attachment of all his movable properties in lieu of settlement, Khan had a different take on events. He said, “I don’t want to comment on the issue as I feel these are vicious rumours spread by mischief-mongers.”