Meerut, October 14, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
A court in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Wednesday sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her lover, Sahil Shukla, to death for murdering her husband, Saurabh Rajput, and concealing his dismembered body in a blue plastic drum in a case widely known as the ‘Blue Drum murder case’.
The Meerut district court had convicted Rastogi and Shukla on September 30 for murder and concealing Rajput’s body. The sentencing followed a trial involving 126 hearings and testimonies, with the prosecution and defence presenting their arguments before the District Judge.
According to the police investigation, the crime took place on March 3, 2025. Muskan allegedly sedated her husband by lacing his food before Shukla arrived at their home. The two then stabbed Rajput to death and dismembered his body in the bathroom, the investigation revealed.
To conceal the crime and suppress the odour of decomposition, the accused allegedly placed the body parts inside a large blue plastic drum, filled it with a mixture of sand, water and cement, and sealed it.
The case was brought before the court on March 17, 2025, and transferred to the District Judge’s court in July that year. Arguments continued for around 13 months before the court delivered its verdict.
Circumstantial and technical evidence
After the conviction on September 30, prosecutor Vijay Bahadur said the prosecution had presented 22 testimonies and built its case on a sequence of circumstantial evidence.
“The court found both the accused, Muskan and Sahil, guilty of murder and hiding Saurabh’s body. We had presented 22 testimonies on different occasions. The case was based on circumstantial evidence. We had presented the circumstances in a sequence. All the testimonies corroborated the prosecution’s case,” Bahadur had said.
He added that the court had found the evidence presented by the prosecution complete and said the prosecution would seek the death penalty.
The prosecution relied on circumstantial, technical and physical evidence. Local shopkeepers testified that they had sold the blue plastic drum, cement bags, sand, cleavers and razors to Rastogi and Shukla before Rajput’s murder.
Call detail records and mobile tower locations allegedly placed Shukla at the residence around the time of the crime. Investigators also traced the pair’s movements together to hotel stays in Shimla and Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
Family had sought justice
Before the sentencing, Rajput’s elder brother, Rahul, told IANS that the family’s only demand was justice.
“We just want one thing: whatever they did to my brother, the same should happen to them,” he said.
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