TikToker murder trial: Two defendants face dangerous driving charges

The prosecution claims the car carrying Mr Ijazuddin and Mr Hussain was rammed off the road

Two men on trial for murder alongside a TikTok influencer and her mother are facing new charges.

Raees Jamal, Rekan Karwan and six others deny killing Saqib Hussain and his friend Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21.

Their car was rammed off the A46 in Leicestershire to keep secret an affair between co-accused Ansreen Bukhari and Mr Hussain, the prosecution says.

Mr Jamal and Mr Karwan, the drivers of two cars, pleaded not guilty to two counts of death by dangerous driving.

Hashim Ijazuddin (left) and Saqib Hussain died at the scene of the crash

Leicester Crown Court previously heard Mr Hussain, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, had been blackmailing Mrs Bukhari - the mother of influencer Mahek Bukhari - with sexual videos and images from their three-year affair.

It also heard Mr Hussain had been demanding back up to £3,000 he had spent on dates with her, and a meeting was arranged to hand it over.

Rekan Karwan was one of the two drivers who followed Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin along the A46

But the prosecution said Mrs Bukhari and her daughter were actually planning to seize Mr Hussain's phone containing the explicit material.

Footage from the Tesco car park, where the meeting was due to take place in February 2022, showed Mr Hussain and Mr Ijazuddin never got out of their car, which the prosecution said was because they became suspicious.

Instead, they left the car park, pursued by a Seat Leon and an Audi TT, containing the defendants.

The evidence has concluded and Judge Timothy Spencer KC has begun summing up the case.

Front, from left: Ansreen Bukhari, Mahek Bukhari, Rekan Karwan, Raees Jamal with back, from left: Ameer Jamal, Sanaf Gulammustafa, Natasha Akhtar and Mohammed Patel

The eight defendants, all charged with murder, are:

• Ansreen Bukhari, 46, of George Eardley Close, Stoke-on-Trent

• Mahek Bukhari, 24, of George Eardley Close, Stoke-on-Trent

• Rekan Karwan, 29, of Tomlin Road, Leicester

• Raees Jamal, 23, of Lingdale Close, Loughborough

• Mohammed Patel, 21, of Braybrooke Road, Leicester

• Natasha Akhtar, 23, of Alum Rock Road, Birmingham

• Sanaf Gulammustafa, 23, of Littlemore Close, Leicester

• Ameer Jamal, 28, of Catherine Street, Leicester

The trial continues.