Indian-Origin Businessman Killed In Botched Police Raid In Nairobi: Sushma Swaraj

NEW DELHI: Bunty Shah, a 32-year-old Indian-origin Kenyan businessman, was killed in a case of mistaken identity during an anti-terror operation in capital Nairobi's last month, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said.

Ms Swaraj said Kenyan security forces were conducting anti-terror operations on the building across the Mr Shah's residence in Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in Nairobi.

"Bunty thought this as an intrusion by armed burglars and fired in the air. The security forces returned the fire resulting in Bunty's death," Ms Swaraj said in a series of tweets today, citing a report received from the high commissioner in Nairobi.

She said Kenyan Police had "regretted" the incident and the high commission told to provide all help and assistance to the family. The minister on Saturday had asked the Indian mission for a report after a woman, Netra Parikh, brought the incident to her attention on Twitter.

Bunty's death in the shootout had sparked widespread outrage in Kenya.

In a statement reported by leading media outlets in Kenya, the Shah family - that runs the giant Bobmill Mattresses in Kenya - had called the police apology "too little too late".

According to media reports in Kenya, the police had initially denied that they had killed him during an operation. In a statement put out on its Facebook page, the Nairobi Police Service later insisted that Bunty Shah kept firing at them despite being warned, a sequence that the Shah family has reportedly disputed..


The Shah family, however, according to a media report, contested the police version and asked the independent Policing Oversight Authority for a speedy investigation. Else, it said, the family would get Bunty's death probed by detectives to get to the bottom of the incident.