Independent
A TikTok influencer whose mother was being blackmailed with a sex tape by her young lover allegedly “set a trap” which ended with him being rammed off the road, killing him and his friend, a murder trial has heard.
Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, and from Banbury, Oxfordshire, are said by prosecutors to have been killed when their Skoda was sent crashing into a tree where it was “virtually split in two” by the impact, before catching fire, just after midnight on February 11 2022.
In a panicked 999 call to police made by front-seat passenger Mr Hussain in the final moments of his life, he claimed Mr Ijazuddin’s silver Skoda Fabia was being “blocked in” and rammed by balaclava-wearing assailants, following in two pursuing cars.
In the recording, played to LeicesterCrown Court on Thursday, he said: “They’re trying to ram us off the road. Please, I’m begging you, I’m going to die.”
He was heard to say “Oh my God”, before there was a scream, with the call cutting off abruptly at the sound of an impact.
Footage from police attending the crash scene, at about 1.35am, showed the Skoda Fabia in flames, resting against a tree in the central reservation of the A46 dual carriageway, by the Six Hills junction near Leicester.
Officers saw “a body hanging out the remains of the nearside passenger seat”, but the heat of the flames prevented rescuers from helping Mr Hussain, who worked at a bakery.
After firefighters extinguished the blaze, Mr Ijazuddin’s body was also recovered, with the two men only identifiable by “dental records”, the jury heard.
The pair had been friends since school, with Mr Ijazuddin agreeing to drive his friend to Leicester that night – described by prosecutors in court as a “fatal mistake that cost him his life”.
Collingwood Thompson KC, prosecuting, told jurors the 999 call was key to the Crown’s case that the crash “was not simply a tragic road traffic accident but a deliberate murder”.
Of the subsequent police investigation, triggered by Mr Hussain’s call and death, the Crown’s barrister said: “It revealed a story of love, murder, anger, attempts at extortion and – ultimately – murder.”
Facing trial after denying the men’s murders are Ansreen Bukhari, 45, and her daughter Mahek Bukhari, 23, both of George Eardley Close, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with six others.
The court was told that Mr Hussain’s family would later tell detectives he was having a three-year affair with older woman Ansreen, who was married with children.
Mr Hussain “appeared to be in love” with Mrs Bukhari, whom he knew as Anzy, while her daughter Mahek “was aware of the relationship between him and her mother and happy to tolerate it, if not approve”, said Mr Thompson.
Although starting as “a bit of fun”, and described as “on and off”, he said: “The relationship, certainly on Saqib’s side, changed, and he told his sister he was in love with her.”
Over the course of their tryst, Mr Hussain’s family estimated he spent between £2,000 and £3,000 taking her out, meeting at hotels and dining in restaurants…
