London: Two days ago, NDTV put out a story saying that the Indian government is probing charges that Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, bought a “benami” property in London through arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
According to the news channel’s website, “Last month, enforcement agencies raided 18 premises owned by Sanjay Bhandari. Two preliminary reports prepared after the raids state that Robert Vadra and his executive assistant sent several e-mails discussing payments and renovations for a London home (12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square) bought for 19 lakh UK pounds (Rs. 19 crores) in October 2009 and sold in June 2010.”
On Wednesday, Firstpost accessed registration records of the address mentioned by NDTV through the official website of the government of the UK. According to government records, the mentioned property was not sold at all since 2005. It was bought by Harold and Shirley Sacks in September 2005, and since then, according to government records, it has remained with them.
After the story was published by Firstpost, NDTV’s Barkha Dutt tweeted that the story was wrong and she was referring to another apartment. This mandated a re-check.
The question is this: Are these two addresses of two different places or are they one?
To reach a conclusion, consider these facts: There is just one Bryanston Square in all of London. There is just one Ellerton House in all of Bryanston Square of the city. And there is just one Flat No. 12 in Ellerton House. (There is one 12a too but that has not been linked to Sanjay Bhandari/Vadra by the media).
And this flat No 12 is owned by the Sacks since 2005.
Ellerton House is built on plot Nos: 10,11 and 12 on Bryanston Square. So, for the purpose of government records and registry, the address of the flat is 12, Ellerton House, 11 Bryanston Square, London, the prefix “11” indicating the plot number.
The old postal code of this area was W1 H 7FF. But this became defunct in 2000 and was replaced by a new set of codes. The code that corresponds to 12, Ellerton House is W1H 2DQ.
According to the news channel’s website, “Last month, enforcement agencies raided 18 premises owned by Sanjay Bhandari. Two preliminary reports prepared after the raids state that Robert Vadra and his executive assistant sent several e-mails discussing payments and renovations for a London home (12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square) bought for 19 lakh UK pounds (Rs. 19 crores) in October 2009 and sold in June 2010.”
On Wednesday, Firstpost accessed registration records of the address mentioned by NDTV through the official website of the government of the UK. According to government records, the mentioned property was not sold at all since 2005. It was bought by Harold and Shirley Sacks in September 2005, and since then, according to government records, it has remained with them.
After the story was published by Firstpost, NDTV’s Barkha Dutt tweeted that the story was wrong and she was referring to another apartment. This mandated a re-check.
The question is this: Are these two addresses of two different places or are they one?
To reach a conclusion, consider these facts: There is just one Bryanston Square in all of London. There is just one Ellerton House in all of Bryanston Square of the city. And there is just one Flat No. 12 in Ellerton House. (There is one 12a too but that has not been linked to Sanjay Bhandari/Vadra by the media).
And this flat No 12 is owned by the Sacks since 2005.
Ellerton House is built on plot Nos: 10,11 and 12 on Bryanston Square. So, for the purpose of government records and registry, the address of the flat is 12, Ellerton House, 11 Bryanston Square, London, the prefix “11” indicating the plot number.
The old postal code of this area was W1 H 7FF. But this became defunct in 2000 and was replaced by a new set of codes. The code that corresponds to 12, Ellerton House is W1H 2DQ.
