London: The two NRI hoteliers who were shot dead by a gang on August 29 paid a heavy price for trying to cleanse the area around their East London Hotel of the menace of drug dealers, police sources said on September 3.

Amarjit Singh, 52, and his 35-year-old nephew Raginder had become well-known for trying to banish drug pushers operating around their hotel in Forest Gate, the sources said.

The Scotland Yard detectives are trying to establish whether their killers were drug dealers seeking revenge.

Police are hunting three Asian men in their twenties with whom the victims had had an argument when they found them parked illegally in spaces reserved for the hotel.

The gang drove off, after a sharp exchange in which Amarjit Singh ordered them to leave, only to return on foot 15 minutes later when they started smashing the windows of a van belonging to the hotelier.

He and his nephew emerged from the back of the hotel when they heard the commotion, only to be shot in front of Amarjit Singh's 26-year-old daughter.

The daughter dived for cover as the killers opened fire and escaped unharmed. She is under police protection as the only witness and has provided officers with valuable evidence, despite the trauma that she has endured.

Detectives from Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Directorate said that 10 spent shell cases fired from a machine pistol had been recovered from the scene.

Detective Inspector Ian Stevenson said the two Punjabi hoteliers, who have a variety of other business interests including property development, had died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Stevenson said, "The whole family is deeply shocked. I must say the daughter has been very strong and given us some very good information. It was a horrific thing for her to witness and she, as well as the rest of the family, have counselling available to them from a trained family liaison officer."

He said officers investigating the "cold-blooded murder" were aware that the area was used for drugs and prostitution.

Community leaders have spoken about a "tide" of drug dealers and prostitutes sweeping the area around the Forest View Hotel, which they said police had failed to prevent.

A spokesman for the Muslim Azhar Academy said pushers regularly sat on the wall of the building, a converted Victorian church, blatantly selling drugs.

"Amarjit Singh was a very good man. He didn't like what was going on and tried to stop it," the spokesman said.

PTI