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.
The investigation led police to recover Rajput’s dismembered body from a blue drum kept inside the house. Rastogi allegedly laced the food with a sedative. After Rajput became unconscious, Shukla was allegedly called to the house. 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. Police questioned the cab driver in whose vehicle Rastogi and Shukla reportedly travelled after the crime.
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.
Then station house officer of Brahmpuri police station, police registered an FIR and began investigating Rajput’s disappearance, according to investigating officer Ramakant Pachauri. Rajput had brought ‘kofta’ curry from his mother Renu Devi’s house on the night of the murder, according to the police probe. Police said Rajput was subsequently murdered and his body dismembered in the washroom. Investigators also collected statements and CCTV footage from the hotel where the two were said to have stayed.
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. So far, only one death penalty of a woman, Rattan Bai Jain, has been executed in the country.
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.
