Death penalty for Muskan and her lover Sahil in ‘blue drum’ murder

A court in Meerut on Wednesday sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her partner Sahil Shukla to death for the murder of her husband Saurabh Rajput, whose body was dismembered and cemented inside a blue drum. Rajput, a merchant navy officer, was killed on March 3, 2025, and his body was recovered two weeks later, in a case that made national headlines.India NewsDistrict judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the verdict after 126 hearings in a 13-month trial, court officials said.According to senior jail superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma, both convicts appeared anxious ahead of the verdict. They had eaten less than usual at dinner the previous night and at breakfast on Wednesday morning, and had not slept properly. Rastogi and Shukla became emotional after hearing the verdict. They were produced separately before the court through video conferencing from jail and given an opportunity to present their views. Both told the court they had nothing to say, Sharma said.Sharma also said Rastogi had been seeking permission to meet her elder daughter for the preceding three to four days, but the child was not brought to the jail.During the hearing, the prosecution, represented by district government counsel Krishna Kumar Chaubey, sought the death penalty, citing the brutality of the murder, the dismemberment of the victim’s body and attempts to conceal it in a blue drum using cement. He argued that Rastogi and Shukla had conspired to murder Rajput and that the manner of the crime warranted the harshest punishment.The defence, represented by advocate Rekha Jain, urged the court to show leniency, citing the future and upbringing of Rastogi’s two daughters, aged seven years and 10 months.In India, a woman being awarded death penalty is rare and as of December 31, 2025, the country had around 24 women on death row. So far, only one death penalty of a woman, Rattan Bai Jain, has been executed in the country.The case came to light after Rajput’s brother, Bablu, lodged a missing-person complaint on March 18, 2025, expressing suspicion about Rastogi and Shukla. According to investigating officer Ramakant Pachauri, then station house officer of Brahmpuri police station, police registered an FIR and began investigating Rajput’s disappearance.The investigation led police to recover Rajput’s dismembered body from a blue drum kept inside the house. According to the police probe, Rajput had brought ‘kofta’ curry from his mother Renu Devi’s house on the night of the murder. Rastogi allegedly laced the food with a sedative. After Rajput became unconscious, Shukla was allegedly called to the house.Police said Rajput was subsequently murdered and his body dismembered in the washroom. The convicts allegedly first attempted to place the body in a briefcase, but abandoned the plan after its hook broke. The body was then placed in a bed before being concealed in the blue drum.Investigators said a statement by Rastogi raised suspicions and prompted further interrogation and evidence collection. With no eyewitnesses to the murder, investigators relied on circumstantial, electronic and forensic evidence to establish the sequence of events and the alleged involvement of the accused.Police questioned the cab driver in whose vehicle Rastogi and Shukla reportedly travelled after the crime. Investigators also collected statements and CCTV footage from the hotel where the two were said to have stayed.Call detail records, mobile phone location data, hotel registers and forensic reports were also examined. The trial involved statements from 22 prosecution witnesses. Chaubey said the then district judge had directed day-to-day proceedings in view of the seriousness of the case.