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TikTok influencer and her mother sentenced to life in prison for murdering secret young lover after he threatened to expose his affair with the mum
TikTok influencer and her mother have been sentenced for ambushing and then murdering two men who died during a high-speed car chase.
Social media creator Mahek Bukhari, 24, and her mother Ansreen Bukhari, 46, hatched a plot to silence Saqib Hussain after he threatened to expose his affair with the mum by leaking their sex tape. Both were found guilty of murder last month.
Hussain was killed in a 100mph fireball crash alongside his friend Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, after their Skoda was deliberately rammed off the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester by balaclava-wearing assailants in two pursuing cars on February 11 last year.
At their sentencing at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Timothy Spencer KC, said the 999 call heard was ‘one of the most moving and distressing pieces of evidence ever heard in court’.
Judge Spencer told Mahek she had an exaggerated sense of entitlement, saying: ‘You are oblivious to the damage you do.’
He continued: ‘The prosecution categorised this as a story of love, obsession, and extortion, and in that they were right. They were also right in categorising this case as one of cold-blooded murder.’ He said the pair had caused a deadly ‘maelstrom.’
The victims, both 21 and from Banbury in Oxfordshire, were in a Skoda chased by Audi and Seat vehicles containing the eight defendants.
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 in the Tesco car park in Hamilton, Leicester, on the pretence of giving him back the £3,000 he said he had spent on taking his lover out during their tryst.
But Ansreen and Mahek arrived at the arranged meet-up along with the six others in two vehicles, an Audi TT and a Seat Leon.
Mr. Hussain then arrived at the car park in a Skoda Fabia, being driven by his friend Mr. Ijuzaddin, who had said he would take him as a ‘favour’.
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.
After his death, Mr Hussain’s family would later tell detectives he had been having a three-year affair with the older woman, who was married with children.
Mr. Hussain ‘appeared to be in love’ with Mrs. Bukhari, whom he knew as Anzy, while her daughter, 24, was ‘aware of the relationship, and was happy to tolerate it, if not approve of it’, said Collingwood Thompson KC.
Senior investigating officer in the case Detective Inspector Mark Parish, from Leicestershire Police, said it was a ‘callous and cold-blooded attack’.
Natasha Akhtar, 23, Ameer Jamal, 28, and Sanaf Gulamustafa, 23, have previously been found not guilty of murder, but guilty of two counts of manslaughter.
Another defendant, Mohammed Patel, was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter.