Four people charged with murder of two Banbury men enter their pleas with court

Three men and a woman charged with killing two Banbury men in a collision on the A46 have each denied double murder charges.

All four defendants are charged in connection to the deaths of Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin and Saqib Hussain, both 21, from Banbury, who were pronounced dead at a crash scene, near the Six Hills junction around 1.30am of Friday, February 11.

The collision involved a silver Skoda Fabia, occupied by the two Banbury men, which left the carriageway. Following initial enquiries, two other cars were reported to have been travelling in the area at the same time of the collision.

The four defendants entered pleas at Leicester Crown Court this morning, Friday March 18.

The defendants who entered not guilty pleas to both murder counts, are Raees Jamal, aged 21, of Loughborough, 28-year-old Rekan Karwan, of Leicester, 20-year-old Mohammed Patel, of Leicester and Natasha Akhtar, aged 21, of Birmingham.

Two of the defendants did not enter pleas with the court. They are Ansreen Bukhari, 45, and Mahek Bukhari, 22, both of Stoke.

All six defendants were remanded back into custody by the court, which earmarked a new trial start date for October 4.

The trial is scheduled to last for 10 weeks and will be presided over by a high court judge.

Police arrested, and charged two other Leicester men earlier this week with murder in connection with crash.

Sanaf Gulammustafa, 22, and Ameer Jamal, 27, have not entered any pleas to their charges, and due to appear in court later this summer.

There were no applications for bail for any of the eight defendants.

The court remanded each of the defendants back into custody.