A Meerut court sentenced Muskaan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla to death for murdering merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput and hiding his dismembered remains in a cement-filled drum.
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A district court in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut sentenced Muskaan Rastogi and her lover, Sahil Shukla, to death on Wednesday for conspiring to kill her husband, merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, in March 2025 and hiding his dismembered body in a blue drum packed with cement and sand. The two had been held guilty about a fortnight earlier.
Delivering the verdict after 126 hearings and testimony from 22 witnesses, District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra found that the pair had jointly planned and carried out the killing. He observed that crimes of this nature spread fear through society.
Muskaan’s own parents did not plead for leniency. Appearing before the court earlier in the day, they described Rajput as a “very good person” and said that if the guilty were sentenced to death, “we will not protest”. Her family has not visited her in prison.
How Crime Unfolded
According to the prosecution, Muskaan drugged Rajput’s food at their Indra Nagar home on March 3, 2025. Shukla arrived soon after, and the two stabbed him to death and cut up his body in the bathroom. To contain the smell of decomposition, they allegedly stuffed the remains into a large blue plastic drum and poured in a freshly mixed slurry of cement, sand and water before sealing it.
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Investigators said the couple left for Himachal Pradesh the next day. During the trip, Muskaan used Rajput’s phone to message his relatives, giving the impression that he was alive and away on work.
On March 17, 2025, relatives grew suspicious and went to the house with local officials. The couple’s six-year-old daughter had reportedly told neighbours, “Papa is in the drum.” Police broke open the sealed drum and recovered Rajput’s remains. Muskaan and Shukla were arrested two days later.
Evidence in Court
The case rested on circumstantial, technical and physical evidence. Shopkeepers testified that they had sold Muskaan and Shukla the drum, cement, sand, cleavers and razors before the killing. Call records and mobile tower data placed Shukla at the house at the time of the murder and tracked the two travelling together, with hotel stays in Shimla and Manali. The post-mortem confirmed that Rajput died of stab wounds.
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