Judge jailing Banbury men's murderers slams TikTok 'fame'

Mahek Bukhari will spend the next 31 years behind bars, after she was found guilty last month of involvement in the murders of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21.

Together with her mother Ansreen, 46, Mahek was one of four people sentenced for the Banbury men’s murder when their car was ‘rammed off the road’ on the A46 in February 2022.

Three others received sentences ranging from 11 to more than 14-and-a-half years for manslaughter.

READ MORE: Life in jail for mum and daughter convicted of A46 murder

Sentencing, Judge Timothy Spencer KC said Mahek Bukhari’s ‘tawdry fame’ as a social media influencer had ‘made you utterly self–obsessed, with a wholly unjustified sense of entitlement, and no apparent awareness of the impact you have on others, oblivious to the damage you do’.

The judge said: “The prosecution were right to categorise this case as cold-blooded murder.

“TikTok and Instagram are at the heart of this case, Mahek Bukhari being a social media influencer.

“That is the reason you, Mahek, dropped out of university. Had you not done so, you would now be a young graduate with your whole life ahead of you. Now, you constrain yourself to prison for all of your best years.”

Turning to the young woman’s mother, the judge continued: “It was the reason you, Ansreen Bukhari, became your daughter’s chaperone. It was the reason your head was turned towards the perceived glamour of promotions, shisha bar openings and the like – a world far removed from the life you lived until then as a mother and housewife.

“You fell for the advances of Saqib Hussain and you began your affair. It was an affair you came to regret and decided to end.

“That decision led to the deaths of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin.

“Saqib Hussain was blackmailing you. He was volatile but I am quite sure, had you had a mature approach to ending your affair, he would have come to terms with it.

“Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin was totally innocent in all of this. All he did was agree to give his friend a lift and he found himself sucked into a deadly maelstrom caused by all of you in the dock.”

Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin (left), Saqib Hussain (right). Picture: Leicestershire Police.

He said: “By January 2022, you, Ansreen Bukhari, put matters into the hands of your daughter – what a calamitous decision.

“You, Mahek Bukhari, approached Rekhan Karwan as a go-between and you, Rekhan Karwan, brought in Raees Jamal. You both knew much more of the situation than you let on to the jury about the Bukhari troubles.

“There never was any money for Saqib Hussain at the meeting – it was a lie to lure him to this city.”