No Vadra link to London property, UK land registry records show

UK land registry records show that no transaction took place in 2009 to link Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, to a house in London, allegedly funded by an arms dealer.

The property in question, Flat No.12 in Ellerton House, Bryanston Square, London, is owned by Harold and Shirley Sacks, and not by any company allegedly fronting for Vadra.

According to official documents, the current owners bought the flat for 9,50,000 pounds on September 23, 2005.

Since then, the property has not changed hands, documents accessed by London-based Asian Lite reveal.

On Tuesday, NDTV news channel of India had reported that the government was probing allegations that Vadra purchased the property through arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari for 1.9 million pounds in 2009 and sold it a year later.

According to NDTV, the investigation was based on two reports by investigating agencies prompted by e-mails allegedly sent by Vadra and his executive assistant Manoj Arora to Bhandari.

Vadra's lawyer had denied the allegation, saying his client had nothing to do directly or indirectly with 12, Ellerton House.

According to Zoopla.com, the leading website that tracks the real estate market and transactions, the flat's current market worth is estimated at 2,524,000 pounds.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has termed the allegations against Vadra part of "a political conspiracy" and dared the Narendra Modi government to probe the matter "unbiasedly".

(Anasudhin Azeez can be reached at md@asianlite.com)

--IANS

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