Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
ITV’s latest three-part docuseries, TikTok: Murder Gone Viral, chronicles three real-life cases that went viral in TikTok. The first episode looks into the case of Mahek Bukhari, a UK-based TikTok star who is now convicted of murder. According to The Independent, Mahek set up a trap and caused a fatal car crash to murder her mother’s lover, Saqib Hussain. The mother-daughter duo was also accused of recruiting others for the task.
The case first appeared in the headlines in 2022 after authorities arrested Mahek and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari. The duo faced charges of murdering Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin in a high-speed car chase. They reportedly committed the crime over Hussain’s plot to blackmail Ansreen.
In 2023, a jury convicted both Ansreen and Mahek Bukhari of murder. After the convictions, Ansreen received a life sentence with a minimum of 26 years and nine months in prison, per BBC. Meanwhile, Mahek was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 31 years and eight months. Several other co-defendants, namely Rekan Karwan, Raees Jamal, Natasha Akhtar, Ameer Jamal, and Sanaf Gulamustafa, also faced convictions.
The Sun reported that Mahek’s profile remains active on TikTok while she serves life in prison for the double murders. Despite not being able to post from inside her prison cell, the former influencer’s videos are still being watched.
What were Mahek Bukhari and her mother Ansreen Bukhari convicted of?
The Independent stated that Mahek Bukhari and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, plotted to murder the latter’s lover Saqib Hussain over his plot to blackmail Ansreen. Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, died in a horrific crash on February 11, 2022.
Details about the case revealed that Ansreen and Hussain, then 18, had started an affair that only Mahek knew about. However, Hussain became obsessed with Ansreen and was unhappy with the latter’s decision to end their relationship. Then, he began threatening to send nude photos and sex tapes to Ansreen’s husband, Raza Ali, if she did not pay back the £3,000 he spent on her.
Hussain’s blackmail reportedly prompted Mahek Bukhari to come up with a trap to silence her mother’s obsessed lover. Prosecutors claimed that the Bukharis lured Hussain into meeting them in a Tesco car park in Hamilton, Leicester, under the pretense of returning the money. However, the mother-daughter duo arrived at the meeting spot with six others in two cars to ambush him. BBC stated that they planned to take Hussain’s mobile phone from him, thinking that it contained Ansreen’s explicit images and the sex tapes.
As per The Independent, Saqib Hussain arrived in a car with his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin but left after being suspicious. This led to a high-speed chase during which Hussain made a distressing 999 call to police moments before his death. In the call, he told operators that balaclava-wearing assailants in two cars were ramming his car off the road.
Hussain said on the call shortly before it abruptly ended, “They hit into the back of the car very fast. They’re trying to ram us off the road. Please, I’m begging you, I think I’m going to die, I think I’m going to die.” On February 11, 2022, the two men were discovered dead in the burning Skoda on the A46 in Leicestershire.
What happened to Mahek Bukhari, her mother, and her remaining accomplices?
After a trial that lasted for three months, jurors found Mahek Bukhari and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, guilty of the double murders in 2023. Mahek received a life sentence with a minimum of 31 years and eight months in prison. Ansreen also received a life sentence with a minimum of 26 years and nine months in prison, per BBC.
Mahek and Ansreen’s co-defendants, Rekan Karwan and Raees Jamal, also received life sentences following their murder convictions. Karwan’s sentence requires him to serve a minimum term of 26 years and 10 months. Meanwhile, as per Jamal’s sentence, he will serve a minimum term of 36 years and 45 days.
The outlet reported that other defendants—Natasha Akhtar, Ameer Jamal, and Sanaf Gulamustafa—were convicted of manslaughter. Akhtar received 11 years and eight months, Ameer Jamal received 14 years and eight months, and Gulamustafa got 14 years and nine months in prison.
The docuseries titled TikTok: Murder Gone Viral premiered with Mahek Bukhari’s case on January 30, 2024, on ITV.
