Mastermind of raid that led to Pc Sharon Beshenivsky’s murder dies in prison
Piran Ditta Khan, 76, has died in jail, a prison service spokesperson said.
The mastermind of an armed robbery that ended in a police officer being shot dead has died in jail, less than a year after he was sentenced.
Piran Ditta Khan was jailed last May, becoming the final member of the gang responsible for the armed raid which ended in Pc Sharon Beshenivsky’s murder to be convicted having spent nearly 15 years on the run.
A Prison Service spokesperson confirmed his death on Friday, saying: “HMP Wakefield prisoner Piran Ditta Khan died on Friday February 21. As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
Pc Beshenivsky was murdered on her daughter’s fourth birthday while interrupting a robbery at family-run Universal Express travel agents in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in November 2005.
Khan had fled to Pakistan after the killing at the age of 57, and evaded justice until he was caught in 2020.
Pc Beshenivsky and her colleague Pc Teresa Milburn, who were both unarmed, were shot at point-blank range by one of the three men who had just carried out the raid as he emerged from the door of the business.
In April 2024, Khan became the last of seven men involved in the robbery to be convicted.
The 76-year-old was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of murdering Pc Beshenivsky, as well as two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.
Last May, Mr Justice Hilliard jailed Khan for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
During his trial, jurors heard Khan was the only one of the group who was familiar with Universal Express and had used the firm in the past to send money to family in Pakistan.
He flew to Pakistan two months after Pc Beshenivsky’s death and remained at liberty there until he was arrested by Pakistani authorities in January 2020 and then extradited to the UK in 2023.
Sentencing him last year, Mr Justice Hilliard told Khan: “You will inevitably spend the remainder of your life in custody, but that is a consequence of sentencing a man of your age for a crime of this particular gravity.”
In a statement to the court, Paul Beshenivsky, who had been married to Pc Beshenivsky for four years when she died, said: “The way we lost Sharon was in the most brutal, callous and futile way.
“She never came home due to the actions and organisation of one person – Piran Ditta Khan.”
