A Mumbai-based influencer has filed an application in a Meerut district court seeking to take care of and provide for the 10-month-old daughter of Muskan Rastogi, a convict in Uttar Pradesh’s infamous ‘Blue Drum’ murder case.
The court found Muskan Rastogi and her then extramarital partner, Sahil Shukla, guilty of murdering her husband, Saurabh Rajput, and concealing his dismembered body in a blue drum. Both were convicted by a Meerut court on September 30 this year and have now been sentenced to death. Faizan Ansari, an influencer by profession, moved to court on Wednesday seeking permission to take up the education and upbringing of Rastogi’s 10-month-old daughter with Shukla named Mannat, alias Radha who was born during the term of her mother’s imprisonment, as per a PTI report.
Chaubey remarked that a proposal to provide financial assistance to the child through the administration could be considered under the prescribed procedure, clarifying that merely filing an application in court did not confer any right to the child’s custody or guardianship, according to PTI.
The ‘Blue drum’ murder case
Rastogi allegedly laced the food with a sedative, as previously reported by HT. 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. 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. District judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the verdict last week after 126 hearings in a 13-month trial, court officials said.
After Rajput became unconscious, Shukla was allegedly called to the house. Both convicts were sentenced to death.
Rajput had brought ‘kofta’ curry from his mother Renu Devi’s house on the night of the murder, according to the police probe. Then station house officer of Brahmpuri police station, police registered an FIR and began investigating Rajput’s disappearance, according to investigating officer Ramakant Pachauri.
