The true crime episode will air on ITV1 on Tuesday 30 January
tells the true story of Mahek Bukhari – an influencer caught up in a web of deceit, blackmail, and murder. Living in Stoke-on-Trent, the former student had dropped out of university to pursue her dreams of social media stardom before things took a turn for the worse.
Here's what you need to know about the spine-chilling case, plus find out where Mahek Bukhari is now…
What did Mahek Bukhari do?
With over 100k followers on social media, Mahek was in the process of establishing herself as an online personality, when her mother, Ansreen, asked for help. The duo – who shared an extremely close relationship – had teamed up, after Ansreen's ex-boyfriend, Saqib Hussain, threatened to expose their affair.
For approximately three years, Ansreen had been involved in an illicit relationship with Saqib, whom she'd met on the video app, Azar. But, after deciding to end their relationship, Saqib threatened to send explicit material of Ansreen to her husband.
Instead of going to the police, however, Mahek and Ansreen took matters into their own hands and came up with a plot to lure Saqib to a local Tesco, where Mahek had enlisted a group of friends to ambush him and take his phone. Raees Jamal, Rekan Karwan, Sanaf Gulamustafa, Ameer Jamal and Natasha Akhtar were among them.
Sadly, on 11 February 2022, Saqib asked his friend, Hashim Ijazuddin, to drive him to a meeting point with Mahek and Ansreen in Leicester. The mother-daughter duo had falsely promised to pay Saqib £3,000 – the same amount that he'd allegedly spent on Ansreen during their relationship. Hashim had no knowledge of Saqib's affair with Ansreen, nor his attempts to blackmail his ex.
After pulling into the Tesco car park, Saqib and Hashim immediately sensed that something was wrong and left. But, shortly after they were followed and later chased in their Skoda Fabia along the A46. During this period, Mahek had called Saqib. The contents of their conversation remain unknown.
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A minute later, Saqib called the police and reported that a car was trying to ram him off the road. After driving at speeds of up to 90mph, Saqib and Hashim tragically crashed into a tree, sending their car up in flames.
Following the recovery of the car, police were able to use automatic number plate recognition to identify one of the cars – the Seat Leon owned by Natasha Akhtar. They eventually arrested Natasha and took her into custody. Shortly after, Mahek and Ansreen were arrested.
With the events of that fateful night pieced together, Mahek, Ansreen and their collaborators received their sentences on Friday 4 August 2023. Mahek was given a life sentence and was required to serve a minimum term of 31 years and eight months in prison. Meanwhile, her mother Ansreen was jailed for life and sentenced to a minimum term of 26 years and nine months in prison.
Natasha Akhtar, Ameer Jamal and Sanaf Gulamustafa were all found guilty of two counts of manslaughter, while Rekhan Karwan and Raees Jamal – who had driven the pursuing cars – were convicted of two counts of murder.
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Where is Mahek Bukhari now?
Mahek is currently serving her sentence at an undisclosed prison in the UK.
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