New Delhi: Following a grueling 13-month trial, 126 hearings and testimony from over 22 witnesses, justice has been handed down in the sensational Meerut ‘blue drum’ murder case.
The police discovered Saurabh’s dismembered remains in a blue drum sealed with cement at a house in Meerut’s Indra Nagar area in March 2025. Investigators subsequently filed a chargesheet running to nearly 1,000 pages. On March 17, the police and relatives opened the sealed drum at the Indra Nagar residence and recovered his mortal remains. Muskan and Sahil were arrested on March 18. A court remanded them to 14 days of judicial custody the following day. The discovery led to the arrests and a trial that lasted 13 months. The police filed a nearly 1,000-page chargesheet on May 12, 2025, citing statements from around 34 witnesses.
It argued that the killing was planned and sought the death penalty for both convicts. The killing came to light after Muskan allegedly disclosed details to relatives. Family members became suspicious and approached the authorities. The trial began in a Meerut district court in July that year.
On October 14, District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her partner Sahil Shukla to death for killing Muskan’s husband Saurabh Rajput, who was a former Merchant Navy officer. The sentencing was pronounced after the convictions of the duo on September 30. On October 14, the prosecution sought capital punishment, arguing that the murder had been planned and was exceptionally brutal.
Saurabh’s family had also pleaded for death penalty. The defence asked the court to impose a lesser sentence and cited the circumstances of the convicts’ families, including the age of their parents. But the went ahead with the death sentence.
The Meerut case has been compared with other high-profile murder investigations in which the police accused people close to the victims of involvement in the killings. The cases are at different stages of the legal process, and allegations in an investigation must be distinguished from findings reached by a court.
