Meerut blue drum murder case revisited: Death penalty for Muskan, boyfriend Sahil for killing husband Saurabh Rajput
Muskan Rastogi and boyfriend Sahil Shukla sedated and stabbed Saurabh Rajput to death in March 2025 before hiding his dismembered body in a cement-filled blue drum
A Meerut court which on September 30 convicted Muskan Rastogi and boyfriend Sahil Shukla in the murder of her husband and Merchant Navy Officer Saurabh Rajput, on Wednesday sentenced the duo to death. The duo attended the court proceedings via video conferencing. The death sentence comes after 126 hearing spanning over two-and-a-half years since the murder. A total of 22 witness gave their testimonies in the case. The convicts were given 15 days to present their arguments on the quantum of sentence while the victim's family sought maximum punishment for the duo.
A Meerut court which on September 30 convicted Muskan Rastogi and boyfriend Sahil Shukla in the murder of her husband and Merchant Navy Officer Saurabh Rajput, on Wednesday sentenced the duo to death. The duo attended the court proceedings via video conferencing. The death sentence comes after 126 hearing spanning over two-and-a-half years since the murder. A total of 22 witness gave their testimonies in the case. The convicts were given 15 days to present their arguments on the quantum of sentence while the victim's family sought maximum punishment for the duo.
A Meerut court which on September 30 convicted Muskan Rastogi and boyfriend Sahil Shukla in the murder of her husband and Merchant Navy Officer Saurabh Rajput, on Wednesday sentenced the duo to death. The duo attended the court proceedings via video conferencing. The death sentence comes after 126 hearing spanning over two-and-a-half years since the murder. A total of 22 witness gave their testimonies in the case. The convicts were given 15 days to present their arguments on the quantum of sentence while the victim's family sought maximum punishment for the duo.
A Meerut court which on September 30 convicted Muskan Rastogi and boyfriend Sahil Shukla in the murder of her husband and Merchant Navy Officer Saurabh Rajput, on Wednesday sentenced the duo to death.
The duo attended the court proceedings via video conferencing. The death sentence comes after 126 hearing spanning over two-and-a-half years since the murder. A total of 22 witness gave their testimonies in the case. The convicts were given 15 days to present their arguments on the quantum of sentence while the victim's family sought maximum punishment for the duo.
What happened in the Meerut blue drum murder case?
Muskan Rastogi and Saurabh Rajput, 29, tied the knot in 2016. However, she entered an extramarital relationship with Sahil Shukla. Though Muskan sought a divorce from Saurabh, he refused.
This led to a plot to murder Saurabh. For this, Muskan created a fake Snapchat account, pretending to be her own deceased mother and messaged Sahil, trying to convince him that killing Saurabh was divinely ordained.
Saurabh, who worked in London, came to Meerut to celebrate his elder daughter's sixth birthday. On March 3, 2025, Muskan laced Saurabh's food with sedatives, which were fraudulently obtained from a doctor. After he fell unconscious, Muskan and Sahil stabbed him to death. The duo then dismembered his body into 15 pieces using cleavers purchased under the guise of cutting meat. They then stuffed the remains in a large blue plastic drum and filled it with a mixture of liquid cement and sand.
Soon after, the duo locked the house and went on a six-day holiday to Manali, Shimla and Kasol.
The crime was exposed when labourers hired to move the heavy drum from the couple's rented house struggled to lift it because of the weight. When they asked about what is inside, Muskan said it was just "house junk.". But the lid accidentally opened when they tried to move it, releasing a foul smell. The labourers grew suspicious and alerted the police.
Saurabh's mother Renu Devi had claimed that her six-year-old granddaughter was aware of the crime. "Neighbours told us that she (Saurabh's daughter) was saying, 'Papa is in the drum'. She might have seen something, or else why would a child say such a thing," she had said.
However, police dismissed Renu Devi's claims, saying the child might have overheard when Muskan narrated the incident to her family members. "The girl did not know anything about this," SP City Aysh Vikram Singh had said back then.
The duo was arrested on March 18, 2025, leading to two-and-a-half years of investigation and court proceedings, eventually resulting in their death sentence.