Police arrest owner of 4-star hotel, 5 others for murder of

The owner of a four-star hotel in the city and five others were arrested today in connection with the murder of a 57-year-old estate officer of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), a day before he was scheduled to pass the final order on the hotel's lease terms.
The deceased, Mohammed Moin Khan, was a lawyer and an assistant legal advisor with the NDMC. The concerned hotel 'The Connaught' was functioning on a property leased by the civic body.
NDMC had sealed the property last year and resumed its possession after the hotel authorities failed to abide by the eviction order following expiry of the lease. The other party had then taken the matter to the court, police said.

On the direction of the High Court, Khan was made the Estate Officer and he was to pass the final order in the lease matter, which is a quasi-judicial action, on May 17.
"Apprehending an unfavourable order, which would have resulted in huge monetory loss and eviction from the property, the hotel owner, Ramesh Kakkar, hatched the conspiracy to eliminate Khan, who was known to be straight and fair in his job," Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order/South) P Kamaraj said.
Khan's family claimed that there was tremendous pressure on Khan from his seniors to waive the penalty of around Rs 140 crore imposed on the hotel for violation of license term, a matter which is still being probed by the police.

To execute the plan, Kakkar (48) contacted Ram Phool (46) and Israil (31), both former employees (bouncers) at Kakkar's nightclub in Greater Kailash area, which closed down around five years ago.

The contract for killing was fixdc for a mere Rs 2 lakh, of which Rs 50,000 was paid in advance.
Soon, others identified as Saleem Khan (29), Amar Alvi (24), Anwar Omais (21) and Bilal were roped in.
While six of the accused have been arrested, Bilal, who was the first to be identified by police, is absconding, Joint Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Upadhyay said.
On May 16 evening, Phool and Israil followed Khan's car after he left his office and when he was about to reach home in southeast Delhi's Jamia Nagar, two motorcycle-borne youths (Anwar and Bilal) intercepted his car, broke open the window and shot him from point-blank range.

Saleem, who is a recovery agent by profession, and Amar, a known bad character in the locality, allegedly helped with the logistics and were also monitoring the execution of the plan.
Police said they are investigating the matter from all angles and some NDMC officials are likely to be questioned.
An official privy to the investigation said, a "liaison
agent" had approached Kakkar earlier this year and claimed that he could settle the matter at less than one-third the amount imposed as penalty.
The agent had claimed before Kakkar that he had done a settlement in Chanakyapuri before. When the agent failed to persuade Khan and, with the final date for the order approaching fast, Kakkar decided to eliminate the estate officer.

The plan was meticulously given shape in 10 days and May 16 was chosen as the day to go for the kill.
The gang conducted multiple recce in the area and tracked Khan's movements for days before shooting him.
The case was cracked with the help of both human intelligence and technical input, sources said.
During investigation, it emerged that the property on which hotel The Connaught is functioning was taken on lease for setting up a 2-star youth hostel but the plan was changed and a hotel came up instead, attracting action from the civic body.
The arrested persons are being interrogated and efforts are on to nab the seventh accused. Also, Rs 49,000 of the advance amount has been recovered, DCP (Southeast) M S Randhawa said.

Police have questioned Khan's colleagues, who claimed the deceased was an honest officer, who was straight and fair in his dealings. Police, however, said they were told that Khan was once suspended by NDMC over 11 years ago on charges of misconduct but it had nothing to do with this case.
It has also come to light that NDMC Vice Chairman Karan Singh Tanwar had on May 6 written to Lt Governor Najeeb Jung demanding Khan's transfer for his "illegal" and "biased" handling of the case, related to a group of hotels including The Connaught. Tanwar had claimed Khan's actions were causing loss to the civic body.