The gruesome murder of merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, 29, allegedly by his wife Muskan Rastogi, 27, and her lover Sahil Shukla, 27, in Meerut, has unraveled a tale of betrayal, meticulous planning, cold-blooded execution and a psyche teetering on the edge of obsession and delusion.
Also Read: ‘Papa is in drum’: Meerut victim Saurabh Rajput’s mother claims granddaughter knew about murder
After hours of interrogating the accused before they were sent to jail on Wednesday, the police found that the seeds of the murder plot were sown in November 2024, when Muskan and Sahil, driven by a shared desire to eliminate Saurabh from their lives, began crafting their ‘deadly scheme’. To ensure their plan was foolproof, the duo scouted villages, posing as curious onlookers, to identify spots where dead animals were buried — ideal locations, they thought of disposing of Saurabh’s body.
On February 22, Muskan visited a doctor on Sharda Road, feigning depression to secure a prescription for sleeping pills. Not content with the doctor’s orders, she turned to Google to research sedatives and narcotics, forging additional drug names onto the prescription. Armed with this, she and Sahil ventured to Khairnagar, purchasing a lethal cocktail of sleeping pills and sedatives. Their shopping list didn’t end there: two meat-cutting knives costing ₹800, a ₹300 razor, and polythene bags — all tools for the grisly task ahead.
Also Read: Meerut murder: Lawyers attack slain Merchant Navy officer’s wife, lover outside courtroom
The execution came on March 3, when Saurabh returned home with a dish of ‘lauki ke kofte’ prepared by his mother, Renu. Muskan seized the opportunity, reheating the dish and lacing it with the sedatives. As Saurabh slipped into unconsciousness, she dialed Sahil, summoning him to their rented home in Indira Nagar. What followed was a scene straight out of a horror film: the couple unleashed a frenzy of knife attacks on the sleeping Saurabh, stabbing him repeatedly until life drained from his body, informed SP (City) Ayush Vikram Singh.
Dismemberment and deception
Dragging Saurabh’s body to the bathroom, Sahil severed his head with a razor, then hacked off his hands at the wrists. Their initial plan was to chop the body into pieces, stuff them into polythene bags, and scatter them across isolated locations. They began by packing Saurabh’s torso into a bag and stashing it inside the box of their double bed — where Muskan slept that night, inches above her husband’s remains. Meanwhile, Sahil took the head and hands to his own home, keeping them in his room for 24 hours.
By March 5, the duo pivoted from their original disposal plan. They purchased a large blue drum from Ghantaghar and cement from a local market. Returning to Muskan’s home, they dumped the torso into the drum, followed by Sahil retrieving the head and hands to add to the mix. With a slurry of cement and dust, they sealed the drum, entombing Saurabh’s dismembered body in a concrete grave—a method possibly inspired, police speculate, by cinematic depictions of body disposal.
Muskan’s cold calculation
Muskan Rastogi emerged as the mastermind of this heinous act. Married to Saurabh since 2016 in a love marriage that soured over time, she grew resentful of her husband’s presence. Despite Saurabh’s attempts to salvage their relationship — forgoing a divorce in 2021 for the sake of their six-year-old daughter — Muskan’s heart had shifted to Sahil, her childhood acquaintance turned lover.
Also Read: ‘Skipped food’: How Meerut murder accused Muskan Rastogi spent first night in jail
Once a robust young woman, Muskan had lost 10 kg, a decline her family attributed to pining for Saurabh during his stints in London. The truth, however, was darker: Sahil had allegedly introduced her to drugs—charas and smack—fueling a dependency that deepened their bond and her descent into depravity. “She was always wayward. Saurabh loved her blindly, but she didn’t deserve him,” her mother lamented.
Sahil’s twisted psyche
Sahil Shukla’s room, adorned with eerie paintings — one featuring an alien face with cryptic dots and the phrase “You cannot trip with us”— hints at a mind steeped in paranoia. Police suspect his belief in spirits, possibly amplified by his drug use, played a role in his willingness to kill. Muskan exploited this vulnerability, allegedly using fake Snapchat IDs to convince Sahil that his late mother’s spirit demanded Saurabh’s “sacrifice” for her peace.
The crime might have remained buried — literally — had it not been for a slip. After sealing Saurabh in the drum, Muskan and Sahil fled to Himachal Pradesh, masquerading as carefree tourists. But upn their return on March 17, the landlord, suspicious after catching them in a compromising position months earlier, demanded they vacate the property. When labourers found the drum unusually heavy and detected a foul odour, the truth began to surface. Muskan’s own confession to her mother—prompted by a failed attempt to access Saurabh’s ₹6 lakh bank account—finally brought police to their doorstep.
The scene at the crime was grotesque: the cement-encased drum, so solid that it had to be sent intact to the mortuary, yielded Saurabh’s remains only after hours of effort.
Verdict in waiting
SSP Vipin Tada confirmed the motive: Saurabh had become an obstacle to Muskan and Sahil’s affair, a hurdle they chose to eliminate with ruthlessly. Both now face justice, their arrest a small solace to a grieving family. Muskan’s own parents, devastated, demand the gallows for their daughter.
