Meerut murder updates: Gruesome details are emerging in the murder of a merchant navy officer in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut. Saurabh Rajput’s wife Muskaan Rastogi had allegedly been plotting the crime since November, even procuring knives and sedatives in preparation.
Saurabh Rajput, 29, a former merchant navy officer, returned home from London on February 24 to celebrate the birthdays of his wife and daughter. Just over a week later, he fell victim to a chilling conspiracy—his body was dismembered and sealed in cement inside a drum.
Muskaan was allegedly aided by her lover, 25-year-old Sahil Shukla.
According to police, the duo meticulously planned the murder, from purchasing weapons and sedatives to scouting disposal sites. Their relationship rekindled in 2019 through a school WhatsApp group, which quickly escalated into an affair, news agency PTI reported.
The affair eventually led to Muskaan planning to leave Saurabh and marry Sahil instead. Police sources revealed that Muskaan and Sahil saw Saurabh as an obstacle in their relationship and decided to kill him.
The murder plan was allegedly hatched by Muskaan Rastogi
According to a report by NDTV, the murder plan of Saurabh Rajput was hatched by his wife Muskaan Rastogi, who convinced her boyfriend Sahil Shukla that his mother was speaking to him – through Snapchat – from beyond the grave.
She allegedly convinced her boyfriend that her mother had reincarnated and was talking to him through Snapchat, thus convincing him to help her murder Saurabh.
By February, when Saurabh was scheduled to return to India, the the two began preparations for executing the plan.
“Muskaan purchased two knives with long blades, telling the shopkeeper she would use them to cut chicken. She also acted stressed to secure banned sedatives from a local drug store,” a source quoted in the PTI report said.
Not one but two murder attempts
The duo’s first attempt at the murder on February 25 failed. Saurabh, who had returned just a day earlier, ate sedative-laced food served to him but only slept deeply without falling unconscious.
But on March 4, Muskaan drugged her husband’s food again, rendering him unconscious. She then joined Sahil in stabbing Saurabh to death. Afterward, the pair dismembered his body in an attempt to conceal the crime. They had already sent Muskaan’s six-year-old daughter to her grandmother’s house before the murder took place.
“The initial plan was to dispose of the body parts in a secluded location, but the duo eventually decided to keep it inside a large blue drum, filling it with cement and sand,” Meerut SP Ayush Vikram Singh told PTI.
The police are also probing a drug angle, claiming that Sahil allegedly got Muskaan hooked on Gaanja.
After the murder, the duo travelled to Himachal Pradesh, attempting to cover their tracks, before returning to Meerut on March 17. The very next day, following a complaint from Saurabh’s family, the police detained the pair on suspicion.
They were arrested after the blue drum containing Saurabh’s dismembered body was recovered from the house.
A court here has sent both the accused to 14-day judicial custody. During their court appearance on Wednesday, a group of lawyers surrounded the couple, attempting to strike them and grab hold of Sahil’s clothes.
Amid the chaos, police officers struggled to maintain order and ensure the accused’s safety.
Muskan Rastogi’s parents ask for death penalty for their daughter
Muskaan’s parents, Kavita and Pramod Rastogi expressed shock and disbelief over their daughter’s involvement in the murder.
The Rastogi family admitted that Muskan and Saurabh never had a harmonious relationship, but they placed the blame squarely on Sahil, claiming that he had introduced Muskan to drugs.
Muskan’s father was particularly vocal in his condemnation, demanding the death penalty for both Muskan and her lover.
“Saurabh left everything for Muskan, including his job and family. But she ended up taking his life. Muskan has lost the right to live. Such a person does not deserve to walk the earth,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.