10 days before murder, NDMC VC sought slain official's removal

Ten days before an NDMC estate officer was shot dead, its Vice Chairman Karan Singh Tanwar had written to LG Najeeb Jung demanding his replacement, alleging that his "illegal" and "biased" handling of a case was causing loss to the civic body.
The case in point was that of a group of hotels including 'The Connaught' and the deceased, Mohammed Moin Khan, a lawyer and an assistant legal advisor with the NDMC, was supposed to pass the final order on the property's lease terms on May 17.
The owner of the four-star hotel and five others were arrested today in connection with the murder of the 57-year-old official outside his residence in South-East Delhi's Jamia Nagar area on May 16 evening.

"I want to bring to your attention the working of Estate Officer MM Khan who is behaving in an arbitrary and unjust manner in a case under his examination relating to Prominent Hotels Ltd.
"He is paying scant attention to the High Court order asking him to consider the contentions of the party but he is following instructions of higher officials and acting in a biased and illegal manner in favour of NDMC," Tanwar said in the letter sent to the Lieutenant Governor on May 6.
"But his actions will cause huge loss to NDMC as well. It will not be out of context to mention that the same official has been under CBI investigation in different matters before. I request you to call records of Estate Officer's proceedings and appoint another official," he added.

NDMC had sealed the property, which is a unit of Prominent Hotels Limited, last year and taken over its possession after the hotel authorities failed to abide by the eviction order following expiry of the lease. The hotel owners had then taken the matter to the court.

On the direction of the High Court, Khan was made the Estate Officer and he was to pass final order in the lease matter, which is a quasi-judicial action, on May 17.
Khan's family claimed that there was tremendous pressure on him from his seniors to waive penalty of around Rs 140 crore imposed on the hotel for violation of licence term, a matter which is still being probed by the police.

Police have questioned Khan's colleagues who claimed he was an honest officer and forthright in his dealings. The investigators, however, came to know that Khan was once suspended by NDMC on charges of misconduct 11 years ago.
NDMC Chairman Naresh Kumar and civic body spokesperson MS Sehrawat were not available for their comments on the issue.