Bunty Shah’s shooting: There must be no room for the predictable police cover-up

Police reaction to news of the fatal shooting of Bunty Shah, the son of industrialist Vipin Shah on Sunday was, in keeping to tradition, to deny any involvement.

Eye-witness accounts point to a gang-land attack on the victim’s compound in which a watchman was injured.

Then yesterday, the police issued a statement regretting the killing in what they now acknowledge was a botched operation.

It should not surprise those conversant with police operations in this country, for that is the vintage police for you.

They first make denials, then launch probes nobody gets to hear anything about, and that is because the police cannot investigate and prosecute themselves. Bunty Shah was killed in his bedroom, completely unarmed. How does that jell in with the claim of mistaken identity?

Had the police been on the tail of a criminal to warrant the mistaken identity claim?

And what was the crime for which Shah died? The police claim to mistaken identity is repugnant as it is illegal. This, clearly, is a case of extra judicial killing for which the truth will never be known.

Shah’s life was as precious as that of those the police sought to protect by a raid they claim was on a terror cell, and did not deserve to die.

An apology does not change the fact that an innocent life was lost needlessly.

The police must get their act together and remedy their dented, soiled image in the eyes of the public and international community.