Mahek Bukhari: How 24-year-old TikTok star went from viral videos to double murder

Her TikTok account is still live

8 months ago

Mahek Bukhari has over 136,000 fans on TikTok, over 3.4million likes and has just been sentenced to 31 years and eight months in prison for double murder – alongside her mother Ansreen Bukhari who’s been given 26 years and nine months in jail for their killing of two men in a high-speed car chase outside Leicester.

Mahek, who goes by May B on TikTok, has said she plans to appeal against her conviction today. And once again questions are circling about exactly how an online influencer got caught up in blackmail, plotting, and the murder of two men. So, here’s everything you need to know about TikToker Mahek Bukhari:

So, what exactly did Mahek Bukhari do?

The build up to Mahek’s crime basically began when her mum started dating a 21-year-old called Saqib Hussain, who she met through a different video app to TikTok: video call and livestream platform Azar. They dated on and off for three years but when Ansreen tried to break it off in 2021, Saqib struggled with the rejection.

Saqib begged Ansreen to rethink the break up and, when she didn’t, he threatened to send explicit content of Ansreen to her husband. When it became too much for Ansreen to handle alone, she broke down and told her daughter Mahek everything that had happened. And Mahek decided to try and solve the problem for her mum.

Mahek and her friend Rekan Karwan, who’s a car mechanic, thought up a way to lure Saqib to meet them, by offering him £3,000— the amount he claimed he’d spent on Ansreen while tey were dating. So, in the early hours on 11 February 2022 they waited for Saqib in a Tesco car park. And what followed was a high-speed chase, which resulted in the death of Saqib and his friend, Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin.

And is Mahek Bukhari’s TikTok account still live?

Before Mahek was sentenced to life in prison for double murder she had made a career from TikTok and planned a career in social media after dropping out of uni. She was earning money through brand deals, had good engagement and often featured her mum in her videos. And her account is still live now.

Ahead of Mahek and her mother’s sentencing, Saqib and Mohammed’s families complained about the account still being active, which now has the comments turned off and still has over 136,000 followers – a number which has grown as the case has continued to gain attention online.

So, is there already a Mahek Bukhari documentary?

Despite lots of search for a “Mahek Bukhari documentary” already, there’s no end to end series about the double murder committed by the TikTok star and her mum. However, the BBC have broken down the key CCTV footage from the night of the car chase to further explain exactly how the crash played out.