A TikTok influencer and her mother have been found guilty of murder after two people died in a high-speed car chase.
Mahek Bukhari and her mum Ansreen Bukhari have been found guilty of the murders of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, in February 2022.
During the trial, prosecutors said Bukhari, 24, took part in the ‘ambush’ after Hussain threatened to use sexually explicit material to expose a long-running affair he had with her 46-year-old mother Bukhari.
Ijazuddin’s Skoda Fabia ‘split in two’ and caught fire after hitting a tree at the Six Hills junction near Leicester in the early hours of 11 February last year.
Advert
Bukhari and her mother, both of George Eardley Close, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, had denied two counts of murder.
During the three-month-long trial, the jury were told that Hussain began an affair with married Ansreen in 2019.
The mother is said to have ended the romance in January 2022, but prosecutors claimed Hussain continued to make attempts to contact Ansreen and had sexual videos and images of her in his possession.
Prosecutors said 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 Ansreen out during their affair.
Instead, Hussain and Ijazuddin, who had driven his friend to Leicester for the meeting as a ‘favour’, were ambushed and then chased before the fatal crash.
The court also heard a 999 call from Hussain during which he told the dispatcher there was 'guys following [him]'.
"They have balaclavas on… they're trying to ram me off the road. They're trying to kill me, I'm going to die… please sir, I just need help," Hussain said.
"They're hitting the back of the car, really fast… please I'm begging you. I'm going to die."
A scream was heard before the call came to an abrupt end, and the pair died in the crash shortly after midnight.
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 defendants will return to court on 1 September for sentencing, but were warned by the judge: “You know the sentence will be very serious.”
After the jury delivered their verdict, Judge Timothy Spencer KC thanked them and excused them from jury service for the next 30 years.
Claire Reid