MEERUT: 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 dismembered body was 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. District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the verdict following 126 hearings during a 13-month trial, court officials said.
According to Senior Jail Superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma, both convicts appeared highly anxious ahead of the verdict, having eaten less than usual at dinner the previous night and at breakfast on Wednesday morning, alongside suffering from lack of sleep. Rastogi and Shukla grew emotional upon hearing the ruling. Produced separately before the court via video conferencing from jail and given an opportunity to speak, both stated they had nothing to say, Sharma noted. He added that Rastogi had repeatedly sought permission to meet her elder daughter over the preceding three to four days, though the child was not brought to the jail.
During the proceedings, District Government Counsel Krishna Kumar Chaubey sought the death penalty for the accused, highlighting the brutality of the murder, the dismemberment of the victim’s body, and the efforts to conceal it inside a blue drum using cement. He argued that the calculated conspiracy and the gruesome nature of the crime warranted the harshest punishment.
Conversely, defence counsel Rekha Jain urged the court to show leniency, pointing to the future and upbringing of Rastogi’s two daughters, aged seven years and 10 months.
In India, capital punishment for women remains exceptionally rare. As of December 31, 2025, India had approximately 24 women on death row, with the death sentence having been executed on only one female convict, Rattan Bai Jain, to date.
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