One of TikTok’s most popular influencers has been charged with the murder of two young men, in an attempt to keep the affair between her own mother and one of the men secret.

Mahek Bukhari, known as “Maya,” was a well-known TikTok influencer with 126K TikTok followers and 43K Instagram followers before she was arrested. Her TikTok account was full of content about hair, fashion and cosmetics.

The 22-year-old Mahek Bukhari, her 45-year-old mother Ansreen Bukhari, and six other people were charged in the murder of Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin and Saqib Hussain, who were both 21-years-old. They were accused of running the two men off the road in Leicester, United Kingdom, earlier this February.

Before their arrest, Mahek and her mother, Ansreen, often appeared in the posted social media videos. In one of the videos, Mahek said she and her mother had a close relationship.

Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin and Saqib Hussain died after their Skoda rammed into a tree just after midnight on February 11 and burst into flames.

Just before the crash, Saqib Hussain, sitting on the front passenger side, called 999 crying for help. He told the operators that his friend’s silver Skoda was being rammed into and attacked by two cars with people wearing balaclavas, covering their faces.

Prosecutors played the 999 calls to the Leicester Crown Court, and Hussain could be heard saying that the cars were trying to ram them off the road, begging the police to rescue them, adding that he would die.

The last thing he said was, ‘oh my God,’ then a scream was heard, followed by a massive bang before the phone call dropped. Police footage shared with the court showed the car engulfed in flames.

The two men, who were from Banbury, Oxfordshire, had known each other for most of their lives. Ijazuddin, the car’s owner, had agreed to give Hussain a lift to Leicester that night, but it was a grievous mistake that cost him his life.

During their investigations, Hussain’s family told the police that he had been involved in a romantic affair with Ansreen for three years while she was still married and had children.

During their three-year affair, Hussain had recorded sexually explicit material, including photos and videos of him and Ansreen. When Ansreen tried to break up with him in January, he became obsessed and kept calling her and professing his love.

Ansreen stopped answering his calls, leading him to become angry, and he started threatening to tell her husband about the affair and blackmailing her for $2,295.

The prosecution alleged that the mother then confided about the predicament to her daughter, which led to them and six others planning the crash.

The prosecutor said that the tragic incident was not just an ordinary traffic accident. He called it a deliberate murder. He also told the court that the group had lured the two victims to a car park before they attacked them.

According to the prosecution, the defendants told multiple lies, and tried to concoct a story to cover up their involvement in the murder of the two men. Both Mahek and her mother have denied any involvement in the murders.