Mahek Bukhari (right) and her mother Ansreen Bukhari arrive at Leicester Crown Court. Photo / Getty Images
Mahek Bukhari (right) and her mother Ansreen Bukhari arrive at Leicester Crown Court. Photo / Getty Images
The TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari and her mother Ansreen Bukhari have been jailed for life for the murder of a former boyfriend in a high-speed car chase.
They will serve a minimum term of 31 years and eight months and 26 years and nine months respectively for the murders of Saqib Hussain, Ansreen’s former lover, and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin in February 2022.
Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, were both killed when their Skoda careered off the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester, smashing into a tree and bursting into flames in February last year.
In a harrowing 999 call made only moments before the crash, Hussain told police that balaclava-wearing assailants travelling in two cars were trying to ram him off the road.
Police later discovered that Mahek, 24, and her mother, 46, had plotted the ambush when Hussain threatened to expose his long-running affair with the woman more than 20 years his senior.
Fellow defendants Rekhan Karwan, 29, and Raees Jamal, 23, were also jailed for life with a minimum of 26 years and 10 months and 31 years respectively for two counts of murder.
Meanwhile, Natasha Akhtar, 23, was jailed for 11 years and eight months; Ameer Jamal, 28, for 14 years and eight months; and Sanaf Gulamustafa, 23, for 14 years and nine months for two counts of manslaughter. Mohammed Patel was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter.
The investigation, described by police as “extremely complex”, spanned more than 200 hours of video footage from more than 40 locations and more than 300 statements taken.
It revealed a “story of love, obsession, extortion and, ultimately... cold-blooded murder”, the trial heard, which began with an affair between Ansreen and Hussain.
In January last year, Ansreen, who was married, made a decision to end the relationship after three years, but Hussain could not accept it. He allegedly made threats to tell her husband and share a sex tape.
A three-month trial at Leicester Crown Court heard that Ansreen had threatened to report Hussain to the police, before confiding in her daughter, Mahek, about the messages.
In one message in January last year, Mahek told her mother: “I’ll get him jumped by guys and he won’t know what day it is.”
Later, she allegedly told him: “I am sorry that this year you’ll be gone, Saqib.”
Despite the animosity between them, Ansreen offered to pay back the money her ex-lover had spent on her during the relationship.
The TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari and her mother Ansreen Bukhari have been jailed for life. Photo / Leicestershire Police
This led them to arrange a meeting in a Tesco car park in Hamilton, Leicester, on February 11 last year, where the money was expected to be handed over.
But just ten minutes later, Hussain was dead.
He was travelling as a passenger in a Skoda Fabia, while his friend Ijazuddin was driving. But when they arrived they realised it was not just Ansreen and her daughter, but others had come along too.
It later emerged that none of the defendants had brought the promised money, but were rather plotting revenge.
Hussain and his friend had arrived at the car park at around 1.17am and immediately left. But two minutes later, the Seat Leon and Audi TT - which were carrying Ansreen, Mahek and five other defendants - followed them.
CCTV footage shows the Skoda Fabia being followed by the two cars, while the defendants exchanged calls with the victims.
Hussain later made a panicked 999 call, begging the police to help: “They’re trying to kill me, they’re trying to kill me. I’m just getting rammed off the road… please, I am begging you,” he said.
Hussain was then heard saying “Oh my God”, before there was a scream, with the call cutting off abruptly at the sound of an impact.
Shortly before 1.30am, the Skoda Fabia was rammed from behind by the Seat. It hit the barrier of the central reservation at 80mph before colliding with a tree.
The vehicle crashed with such force that it split in two and the engine detached.
Leicestershire Police said that “Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin both died immediately from multiple injuries”, prior to a fire erupting.
Collingwood Thompson KC, prosecuting, told jurors that the 999 call proved “this was no ordinary traffic accident”.
A tracker fitted on the Audi TT, which was a hire car, showed it had reached speeds of up to 100mph during the chase, before heavily breaking to 62mph following the crash.
While Hussain and Ijazuddin lay dead in their car, Ansreen and her daughter, along with the other defendants, sped away down the A46. The cars then travelled back past the crash scene where the Skoda was ablaze.
At no point did the defendants call for help. Instead, it was a passing driver who finally alerted the emergency services.
CCTV footage also showed the defendants walking in the Gipsy Lane area of Leicester as if nothing had happened, making their way home.
Phone data showed that calls and messages were exchanged between them throughout the morning.
But police officers soon turned up at their homes.
Body camera footage shows Ansreen and Mahek lying to officers about their whereabouts throughout the evening when they were arrested on the morning of February 11, with Mahek telling them they had travelled to Nottingham.
Forensic investigators identified damage to the front of the Seat, showing it had collided with the back of the Skoda Fabia.
A curved metal tool was also found in the driver’s seat, along with a wheel brace in the boot of the Audi TT, which detectives think “were taken deliberately to the meeting arranged”.
During the trial, all of the defendants denied two charges of murder, however, they all admitted to being in the Seat Leon or the Audi TT at the time of the crash.
