A 75-year-old hotelier, Kundanlal Thapar, was shot dead outside his residence at Bhandup late on Saturday night.

Thapar was sitting outside his residence at Aktore Building on LBS Marg, Bhandup, at around 8.15 pm, when an unidentified hitman accosted him and fired a round at him from a close range before escaping from the spot.

The owner of the Great Punjab Hotel near Bhandup police station, Thapar was rushed to the Bhadvaik Hospital but was declared dead before admission. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the hotelier could have been murdered for refusing to cough up protection money.

Body found with injuries

The body of a 35-year-old man was found near the Maharishi Karve Udyan at Wadala today at around 7.55 am. The victim, who has not yet been identified, had sustained multiple injuries on the head and chest, believed to have been inflicted by a sharp weapon. A case of murder has been registered by the R A Kidwai Marg policestation.

BMC's powers to attach properties

Can a civic body sell by public auction a building jointly owned by a number of persons if some of them have defaulted in paying property taxes?

Yes, says the Bombay High Court, but before doing so, the BMC has to issue outstanding bills to each of the joint owners for recovery of property taxes from them. If the taxes are still not paid, the civic body is empowered to take action as per law.

The ruling was delivered last week by Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice S Radhakrishnan, who stayed the warrant of attachment issued by the BMC against Kamlesh Apartments located at Andheri. The verdict is considered significant because the BMC had made this issue a test case in view of several buildings in Mumbai failing to pay property taxes running into crores of rupees. (PTI)

IT selection of scrutiny cases

n THE chief commissioner of Income Tax has announced in a press note that the process of selection of cases for scrutiny (under Section143 (3) of the Income Tax Act, 1961) for the financial year 1999-2000 has been completed.

The press note further states that individual intimations in this regard have been sent to the concerned tax payers whose cases have been selected. It has also been clarified that in exceptional cases, for reasons to be recorded in writing, the Income Tax chief commissioner may approve selection of any case for assessment anytime during the financial year. (ENS)