A man is to appear in court in public for the first time charged in connection with the death of a restaurant boss in Aberdeen almost four decades ago.
Kazi Ahmad’s body was found at a flat in Rosemount Viaduct in Aberdeen in October 1978, sparking a police investigation the length and breadth of the country.
Now, 39 years on, a man will go on trial charged with his murder.
Police arrested Riasat Khan in Birmingham last year and he has made two private appearances in Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
The 62-year-old has made no plea or declaration and has been kept in custody.
Mr Ahmad travelled to Britain from Bangladesh in the 1960s and lived in Perth, South Shields and London before moving to the north-east.
He set up the Raj Dahal curry house on Dee Street and lived in a two-bedroom flat in Aberdeen which was used to accommodate employees.
His neighbours were alerted to the tragedy on October 15, 1978 when they woke up to find the building surrounded by the police.
On the night he died he is believed to have won as much as £1,000 when gambling in a casino.
Mr Khan’s family had moved back to Bangladesh where he visited them shortly before his death.
The Asian community in Aberdeen was left devastated by the death.
Grampian Police launched a full-scale murder inquiry and as forensic experts pieced-together information, the investigation expanded out of Aberdeen.
Officers with dogs searched the areas around the city-centre tenement, and almost immediately after Mr Ahmad’s body was discovered, a major incident room was set up the force’s Queen Street headquarters to co-ordinate inquiries.
A nationwide search for the killer was launched and police appealed to passengers on an Aberdeen to Edinburgh train to come forward with information.
Police throughout Britain were helping Grampian officers and police also spoke to taxi drivers in their appeal for information.
Checks were also made at sea and airports.
Taxi drivers and train passengers came forward in response to the police pleas for information, but no arrests were made at the time.
Khan will go on trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court on June 6.
