- Influencer Mahek Bukhari has been accused of murdering Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin and Saqib Hussain.
- The court heard that Bukhari and her mother ran them off the road to keep an affair secret.
Mahek Bukhari, who had a large following on TikTok and Instagram, is on trial for murder after prosecutors accused her of killing two men in a plot to keep an affair between one of them and her mother a secret.
Bukhari, 23, denied the two counts of murder, as did her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, 45, and six other defendants charged in the ongoing court case. The group have been accused of running Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin and Saqib Hussain, both 21, off the motorway near Leicester, UK back in February. Before Bukhari was arrested, she had 126,000 followers on TikTok and 43,000 on Instagram. Ansreen would often appear in Bukhari's content, including one video where Bukhari described them having "an elite relationship."
The allegations and developments in the trial have spawned numerous videos from true crime fans on TikTok that include clips of Bukhari's past videos and comments on the media coverage of the charges. The search term for "Mahek Bukhari" has over 28 million views on the platform, reflecting a wider appetite for true crime and court proceedings that have become prominent subgenres on there.
On the first day of the trial at Leicester Crown Court, the jury was told that Hussain was in a romantic relationship with Ansreen and had been threatening to blackmail her for £2,000 ($2,295) with videos and images of their 3-year affair after they broke up and he became "obsessed" with her, according to the BBC. This is what led to Bukhari, Ansreen, and the other defendants who are all in their 20s, to plan the crash, the prosecution alleged.
Hussain and Ijazuddin died when their car crashed into a tree at 1:35 a.m. on February 11. Just beforehand, Hussain had called emergency services saying their car was being rammed by attackers in balaclavas, according to the Evening Standard.
"They're trying to ram us off the road. Please, I'm begging you, I'm going to die," he said in the call which was played before the court. The call then cuts out after a scream and the sound of a collision, which is when the car crashed into the central reservation and burst into flames.
Prosecutor Collingwood Thompson KC described the incident as "not simply a tragic road-traffic accident but a deliberate murder." The court heard that Bukhari and Ansreen had lured the men to meet them at a car park in Leicester before the attack.
Thompson told the jury Bukhari "burst into tears" when she found out the men had died. Evidence presented by the prosecution includes knowledge of a phone call between Bukhari and codefendant Raess Jamal when police arrived at her house, and a Snapchat message to Ansreen from Bukhari which reads "Risky...if anyone else was in the car...he said just say you and Mum."
"It seems pretty clear what happened was a concocted story was put together in order to deceive the police," Thompson said.