A TikTok influencer and her mother have been found guilty of murdering two men during a high-speed car chase after ambushing them.
Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin died when their car left the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester on 11 February last year, with prosecutors saying during a three-month trial at Leicester Crown Court that they were deliberately rammed off the road.
Mr Hussain had threatened to use sexually explicit material to expose a long affair he had with the mother of YouTube and TikTok content creator Mahek Bukhari.
Jurors deliberated for more than 28 hours before returning a verdict, finding her – and her mother Ansreen Bukhari – guilty of two counts of murder. The influencer sobbed in the dock as she was found guilty.
In a recording played to jurors, Mr Hussain made a desperate 999 call to police moments before he was killed, claiming he was being pursued by balaclava-wearing assailants.
He said: “They’re trying to kill me, they’re trying to kill me. I’m just getting rammed off the road.” He added: “Please, I am begging you” followed by: “Oh my God”, before there was a scream and the call abruptly ended at the sound of an impact.
A trial at Leicester Crown Court heard that their deaths had been a “story of love, obsession, extortion and, ultimately, the Crown allege – cold-blooded murder”.
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, 24, was said to have taken part in the “ambush” after Mr Hussain threatened to use sexually explicit material to expose his affair with Ansreen.
The court was told Mr Ijazuddin’s Skoda Fabia split in two and caught fire after hitting a tree.
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 were chased before the fatal crash.
After being invited under false pretences to a car park, they quickly became suspicious and sped away in their Skoda Fabia. They were then pursued by a Seat Leon and an Audi TT containing the defendants, before being rammed off the road.
Mr Hussain’s family would tell detectives after his death that he had been engaged in a relationship with an older woman, who was married with children. He had “appeared to be in love”, they said.
However, by January 2022, she wished to end the relationship against his wishes, with Mr Hussain sending his former lover a number of messages and “becoming increasingly obsessive”.
After she refused to return his calls, he decided to blackmail her by threatening to send sexually explicit images to Mrs Bukhari’s husband and son.
On 4 January, Mahek Bukhari sent her mother a message that read: “I’ll get him jumped by guys and he won’t know what day it is.”
When Mr Hussain also tried to contact her to get her mother to reply to him, the TikTok influencer replied: “She ain’t a dog, don’t f****** raise your voice and tell me what to do.” She allegedly then told him: “I am sorry that this year you’ll be gone, Saqib.”
In February 2022, Mahek Bukhari’s friend Karwan, 29, of Leicester, was brought in to help negotiate money with Mr Hussain, in a bid to “silence” him.
Jamal, 22, of Loughborough, “recruited” others, including Akhtar, 23, Gulammustafa, 23, Ameer Jamal, 28, and Mohammed Patel, 21, jurors were told.
The court heard how “completely innocent” Mr Ijazuddin had agreed to drive Mr Hussain to Leicester and had been “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Footage from police attending the crash scene at about 1.35am showed the Skoda in flames and resting against a tree by the Six Hills junction near Leicester.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, the two men could be identified only by dental records.
Karwan had claimed he was about “three or four car lengths behind” when the crash happened.
The defendants will be sentenced on 1 September.
Before remanding them into custody, Judge Timothy Spencer KC warned them: “You know the sentence will be very serious.”
He thanked the jury, made up of five men and seven women, and excused them from jury duty for the next 30 years.