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Former Aberdeen restaurateur appears in court charged with murder of police officer in England

Piran Ditta Khan worked in the Shish Mahal restaurant on Union Street and launched Crown Palace on Justice Mill Lane.

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead on November 18 2005. Images: West Yorkshire Police/Shutterstock
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead on November 18 2005. Images: West Yorkshire Police/Shutterstock

A former Aberdeen restaurateur has appeared in court charged with the murder of a police officer in England.

Piran Ditta Khan was extradited from Pakistan where he was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky.

He’s accused of shooting dead the 38-year-old mum while she was on duty in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 2005.

Khan was arrested abroad in 2020 during an operation involving the National Crime Agency and Pakistani police.

The 74-year-old, who lived in Aberdeen from the early 1980s until 1998, worked in the Shish Mahal restaurant on Union Street and owned another takeaway.

He also launched Crown Palace on Justice Mill Lane, which closed in April 1998 after a fire.

An associate of Khan told The Press and Journal at the time that he had left the north-east shortly after the incident.

Khan faces six charges

Khan, who was known to friends and associates in Aberdeen as Peter, appeared in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Thursday.

The Pakistani national is charged with murder, robbery, two counts of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possessing a prohibited weapon.

The six charges were agreed by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2006, according to the CPS.

Khan, who was wearing a blue and white Nike tracksuit jacket, was not asked to enter a plea to any of the alleged offences.

He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and to tell the court that he was having difficulty hearing.

The court heard that a warrant was issued for Khan’s arrest in Pakistan in 2018 and that he was detained in 2020.

Khan is charged with robbing Mohammed Yousaf’s travel agency of an unknown quantity of cash.

The firearms charges relate to his alleged possession of a Mac 10 sub-machine gun and a 9mm pistol.

All the alleged offences are said to have taken place on the same day.

No bail application was made and District Judge John Zani remanded Khan back into custody before he appears at the Old Bailey on Monday.

The judge told him: “All the allegations that you face are to be dealt with at a higher court, the Crown Court, so I am transferring this case to the Central Criminal Court in London and you will appear there on Monday”.

The trial may take place in Leeds but detailed arrangements for that have not yet been made, the court heard.

Allegations from almost 20 years ago

Joanne Jakymec, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for England and Wales, said: “Since Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2020, our specialist prosecutors have been working closely with our Pakistani partners to complete the legal process in the country so that he could be extradited back to England to face the allegations from almost 20 years ago”.

When PC Beshenivsky was fatally shot, she was responding to an armed robbery at Universal Travel in Morley Street, Bradford, on November 18 2005.

The PC, who was a married mother of three children and two stepchildren, had only been working as a probationer police officer for nine months.

Her colleague PC Teresa Millburn was also shot but survived the ordeal.

Three men have previously been jailed for murdering PC Beshenivsky, and two other men were locked up for manslaughter.

A total of six men have been convicted for criminal offences connected with the fatal armed robbery more than 17 years ago.

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