Who is Mahek Bukhari? The TikTok influencer convicted of double murder
Social media influencer Mahek Bukhari had more than 120,000 followers on TikTok, where she shared regular fashion updates, occasionally appearing with her mother Ansreen Bukhari.
But after the glamour of online stardom, the pair are now facing lengthy jail terms after they were convicted of murdering two young men during a high-speed car chase.
Mahek, 24, who was known to her followers as Maya, hatched the plan when 46-year-old Ansreen admitted she had been having an affair and was being blackmailed by her 21-year-old lover after trying to end the relationship.
Saqib Hussain was threatening to send sex tapes to Ansreen’s husband if she did not pay back the £3,000 he had spent on dates with her.
The mother and daughter “set a trap”, a court was told, by arranging “an ambush” meeting in a supermarket car park in Leicester, where the women arrived in an Audi with other people they knew in a Saab.
Mr Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, also 21, did not get out of their Skoda and when they left were followed by the other cars.
By the time the two men, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, reached the A46 duel carriageway, the Audi had reached speeds of almost 100mph.
“They’re trying to ram us off the road,” Mr Hussain is heard saying in a panicked 999 call played to jurors during the Bukharis’ trial. “Please, I’m begging you, I’m going to die.” There is a scream before the call cuts out at the sound of a loud bang.
The vehicle “virtually split in two” and caught fire after hitting a tree at the Six Hills junction near Leicester just after midnight on 11 February 2022, a jury was told.
When the police came to her house, Mahek lied about where she had been on the night of the crash, claiming: “First we stayed here and then we went straight to Nottingham.”
After her arrest, she changed her story, admitting she was on the road that night, but telling officers in an interview: “As soon as I turn around the silver car is gone.
“The silver car swerved, to not my side, to the other side of the duel carriageway… I didn’t see the car, I didn’t see a bang.”
During her trial, Mahek admitted she had repeatedly lied to police.
Leicestershire Police’s Detective Inspector Mark Parish said: “I think sometimes it’s been very hard for the families to grasp, to hear different accounts. No real admission of guilt or feelings for the lads that died.”