The Income Tax department probe into a possible purchase of air tickets by arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari for Congress leader Robert Vadra may have hit a dead end, as the travel agency that booked the tickets said it took cash, the Indian Express reported on Wednesday.
The Paharganj-based agency said it did not remember whether someone from Sanjay Bhandari’s side or Robert Vadra’s paid them for the international business-class tickets, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources in the tax department.
"If the payments for the flights had been made by cheque, we could have traced the person who made the payments. But since the payments were made in cash there is nothing to dig deeper. And an amount of between Rs 8 lakh-Rs 10 lakh is too small an amount for us to call Robert Vadra over for questioning," the report quoted an official as saying.
The mails containing the ticket-booking details were seen by the officials after they went through mails on a renovation of a property in London "ostensibly' by Sanjay Bhandari for Robert Vadra.