TikTok influencer and her mother guilty of double murder

Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin died when their car left the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester on February 11 2022, with prosecutors saying during a three-month trial at Leicester Crown Court that they were deliberately rammed off the road.

Jurors deliberated for more than 28 hours before returning a verdict finding YouTube and TikTok content creator Mahek Bukhari and her mother Ansreen Bukhari guilty of two counts of murder on Friday afternoon.

Fellow defendants Rekhan Karwan and Raees Jamal were also found guilty of two counts of murder – while Natasha Akhtar, Ameer Jamal and Sanaf Gulamustafa were all found not guilty of murder, but guilty of two counts of manslaughter.

Mohammed Patel was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter.

The victims, both 21 and from Banbury in Oxfordshire, were in a Skoda chased by Audi and Seat vehicles containing the eight defendants.

Mahek Bukhari, 24, was said to have taken part in the ambush after Mr Hussain threatened to use sexually explicit material to expose a long-running affair he had with her 46-year-old mother Ansreen.

The court was told Mr Ijazuddin’s Skoda Fabia “split in two” and caught fire after hitting a tree at the Six Hills junction in the early hours of February 11 last year.

Mahek Bukhari and her mother, both of George Eardley Close, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, had denied two counts of murder.

Prosecutors said Mr Hussain was “lured” into meeting with the Bukharis on the pretence of giving him back the £3,000 he said he had spent on taking his lover out during their tryst.

Instead, Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin, who had driven his friend to Leicester for the meeting as a “favour”, were ambushed and then chased before the fatal crash.

In a 999 call to police made by front-seat passenger Mr Hussain moments before his death, he said their car was being “rammed off the road” by balaclava-wearing assailants in two pursuing cars.

Judge Timothy Spencer KC thanked the jury, made up of five men and seven women, for their “remarkable” service and excused them from jury duty for the next 30 years.

The defendants will be sentenced on September 1.

Before remanding them into custody, the judge said: “You know the sentence will be very serious.”

Speaking to the press outside Leicester Crown Court following the verdicts, Saqib Hussain’s father Sajad said the grief of losing his son has been “further compounded by having to relive the horror over and over each day we’ve been in court”.

He said: “My family and I would like to thank Leicestershire Police greatly for their fairness, diligence and painstaking hard work ensuring that those responsible for Saqib and Hashim’s death could not evade justice.

“We hope and have confidence that Saqib has found rest with our eternal lord and that we will be able to be with him again when we pass away.

“We also pray that no family will ever go through what we had to go through.”

Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin’s uncle Anser Hussain said his nephew was “one in a million”.

He said: “The day we found out Hashim had died, our world came crashing down. His death has changed everything for not just our family, but the whole community.

“Everyone who knew Hashim loved him. His death is not just a massive loss to our family, but a massive loss to everyone who knew him.

“He was a cheeky young man who was always smiling. A handsome man who was beautiful on the inside and out. He would do anything for anyone. He was caring and very kind-hearted.

“He would always put others first. On that tragic day, he was simply helping a friend by giving him a lift which resulted in his death in such a harsh manner.

“It has been extremely painful for all of our family to lose Hashim at such a young age but also in the circumstances in which we lost him.

“We will always be proud of him. Hashim was and always will be one in a million.”