The leader of the robbery that resulted in the murder of a police officer spent nearly 15 years avoiding capture before facing legal consequences.
Piran Ditta Khan left the country after Pc Sharon Beshenivsky's death and was later brought to trial after being extradited from Pakistan.
Khan, aged 75, organized the robbery that led to Pc Beshenivsky's fatal shooting and the serious injury of Pc Teresa Milburn, according to his trial.
The two officers were shot as they responded to the robbery at family-owned Universal Express travel agents in Bradford in November 2005.
At Leeds Crown Court, it was revealed that Khan was in a lookout car eating sandwiches while three other men carried out the robbery. Prosecutors argued that his crucial role in planning and giving instructions made him guilty of Pc Beshenivsky’s murder as if he had pulled the trigger himself.
Over the four years following Pc Beshenivsky’s death on November 18, 2005, the other six men involved in the robbery were put on trial and found guilty.
Muzzaker Shah and brothers Yusuf Jama and Mustaf Jama – the three armed men who entered Universal Express – were convicted of murder, robbery, and firearms offenses.
Hassan Razzaq and his brother Faisal Razzaq were convicted of manslaughter, robbery, and firearms offenses. Raza Ul-Haq Aslam was convicted of robbery.
Jurors learned that Khan, the leader of the plot, escaped arrest by leaving the UK in January 2006 on a flight from Heathrow to Islamabad.
He remained free in Pakistan until being apprehended by Pakistani authorities in January 2020.
In 2009, a poster offering a £20,000 reward was issued in Pakistan by police attempting to locate him, and West Yorkshire officers renewed their appeal in 2016.
After his arrest, Khan appeared in an Islamabad court, where his extradition was discussed and he requested to be tried in his home country.
The court heard that he returned to the UK in April after a request for extradition from the British government and was brought to Leeds by West Yorkshire Police.
Khan stated at his trial that he initially went to Pakistan for his son’s wedding but did not return after becoming fearful when he saw news reports identifying him as a wanted man.
The defendant primarily communicated through a Punjabi interpreter during his trial, telling his lawyer: ‘My English is street English, your English is book English.’
He informed the court that he grew up in Pakistan as one of eight children and moved to the UK alone as a teenager in 1965, initially staying with an uncle in Bradford.
He then lived in Nottingham, Derby, and Dewsbury, working in various factories and even going to Denmark to work at a hotel at one point.
After marrying in Pakistan and having five children, he returned to Bradford, initially alone.
When his family joined him around 2002, he was living in London, and at the time of the robbery, he claimed to be based in Enfield, as per his testimony.
Khan disclosed that he met Mohammad Yousaf, who later opened Universal Express, while living in Bradford and had been using his services to send money to family in Pakistan since 1968.
He said he robbed the place because Mr Yousaf owed him £12,000 which he claims disappeared in 1996. He told the jury that he didn't use the business after that and hadn't been to their new location on Morley Street, where the robbery happened.
The person accused of a crime said debt collector Hassan Razzaq offered to help him get his money back after they met through a business associate in Aberdeen, where Khan owned a restaurant.
He said he didn't know beforehand that a robbery would happen or that the men Razzaq sent had guns. He claimed he thought they would just scare the staff.
He admitted to committing the robbery, saying it was because the armed men were there for his money and it was his mistake to inform them.
Prosecutor Robert Smith KC said Khan's story of being cheated was a completely false attempt to explain why he was in Bradford at the time of the robbery and murder.
The jury learned that he has been convicted of assault causing bodily harm, assault, and possessing a weapon between 1978 and 1999.
The person accused of a crime said one assault conviction from 1980 involved pushing and slapping a woman who wanted to marry him, while another from 1990 was when customers misbehaved in his restaurant and he hit one of them to make them leave.
He told the court that he was not a troublemaker but would defend himself.
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