MURDER ACCUSED ‘KNEW NOTHING OF PLAN TO HURT MEN’
Jury told Tiktok star’s mum did not see fatal crash
THE mother of Tiktok influencer Mahek Bukhari has told a murder trial jury she had no knowledge of any plan to hurt two men who died in a crash.
Ansreen Bukhari, who was giving evidence on her 47th birthday, also told the trial at Leicester Crown Court she did not even notice the collision happen.
The defendant, from Tunstall, said she was in the passenger seat of her daughter’s Audi, with her head down and her hands over her head, at the time.
She has previously admitted she had been in an extra-marital affair with one of the fatal car crash victims – Saqib Hussain, aged 21 – whom she claimed was trying to blackmail her by threatening to post explicit pictures and videos on the internet.
As the jury had already heard, Saqib, right, and his friend, Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, drove to meet Mahek Bukhari and her mother at Tesco, in Leicester.
But six others accompanied the women, and Saqib and Mohammed fled up the A46 in a Skoda Fabia, allegedly pursued by two cars containing people wearing balaclavas, with Saqib calling 999 and telling the police that someone was trying to kill them.
Moments later, the Skoda smashed into a tree on the central reservation of the dual carriageway, with the car breaking into two and bursting into flames, at about 1.30am on Friday, February 11, this year.
Ansreen Bukhari told court on Tuesday she had not noticed the crash. She also denied any knowledge of any of her co-accused having weapons on them, and also said she never saw anyone wearing balaclavas.
She was repeatedly asked if she wanted to physically harm Saqib, and she said she did not.
As the Audi, being driven by co-accused Rekan Karwan, sped away from Leicester along the A46, Ansreen Bukhari said she was still unaware of any plan to hurt Saqib, and thought that they were just trying to get him to pull over.
Her daughter, Mahek Bukhari, a star on video sharing app Tiktok, was on the phone to Saqib at the beginning of the pursuit, she said.
Ansreen Bukhari said: “She was telling him ‘we need to speak, if you could just pull up’. All he was saying was, ‘I’m going to do it, I’m going to send the videos and pictures’.”
Further up the road, as the cars reached speeds of up to 100mph, she said she was frightened and not looking at what was happening.
“I was scared. I was shaking. I just had my head down and my hands on my head,” she told the jury.
She also said she had no idea three others were with Raees Jamal in the other vehicle, a Seat, which is alleged to have rammed the Skoda off the road.
She was asked what happened when the Skoda crashed. Ansreen Bukhari said: “I didn’t see anything. I didn’t hear anything.”
She said she also did not hear anyone saying anything at all to suggest there had been a crash, but she saw the flaming vehicle as their cars headed back towards Leicester.
She said she was shaken and “too upset” to ask anyone about the crash, adding: “I thought the car lost control.”
She was asked by her barrister, Patrick Upward KC, why, after being charged with two murders, she never mentioned her relationship with Saqib.
She said: “Because it was too embarrassing,” and added that she was “scared of wrecking [her] marriage”.
She said her husband, Raza Ali, did not go to see her in prison until last weekend – about 10 months after she was arrested at their family home.
She said he now knew everything about her affair with Saqib.
The defendants all deny murder and an alternative count of manslaughter.
Those on trial are: Natasha Akhtar, (22), of Alum Rock Road, Birmingham, Mahek Bukhari, (23), and Ansreen Bukhari, (45), both of George Eardley Close, Tunstall, Raees Jamal, (22), of Lingdale Close, Loughborough, Rekan Karwan, (28), of Tomlin Road, Northfields, Leicester, Mohammed Patel, (20), of Braybrooke Road, Northfields, Leicester, Sanaf Gulammustafa, (22), of Littlemore Close, Crown Hills, Leicester, and Ammeer Jamal, (27), of Catherine Street, Belgrave, Leicester.
The trial continues.