Meerut:
Muskaan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla, sentenced to death on Wednesday for the murder of Rastogi’s husband, merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, in Meerut, broke down and “cried uncontrollably” after the verdict, officers told NDTV. Both have stopped eating since the sentence was pronounced, according to jail sources.
The jail administration has increased security and surveillance for both convicts. They have been given new prisoner numbers: Shukla is 395, Rastogi 396. They are being held in separate cells, and jail officials are monitoring their condition.
The death sentence also changes what the two will wear in jail. Shukla will wear a white kurta-pyjama, while Rastogi will wear a cream-coloured saree or suit, the sources said.
After the verdict, Rastogi and Shukla asked jail officials what would happen next. Officials told them they could appeal to the High Court, and they have been informed of that option as part of the legal process ahead.
District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the sentence on Wednesday, two weeks after convicting the pair. The trial ran through 126 hearings, and 22 witnesses gave statements. The court held that Rastogi and Shukla conspired to kill Rajput and concealed his dismembered body inside a blue industrial drum using concrete and sand.
While pronouncing the sentence, the court referred to the Bhagavad Gita, according to the lawyer representing Rajput’s side. “The judge cited references from the Mahabharata, affirming that the court would perform its duty, as ‘dharma also means punishing those who commit wrongs’. Despite significant efforts by the defence, we have prevailed. Saurabh’s family members did not say anything,” the lawyer said.
Earlier in the day, Rastogi’s parents told the court that Rajput was a “very good person” and that if their daughter Muskaan were sentenced to death, “we will not protest”. Muskaan Rastogi’s family never met her in prison.
According to the police case, she sedated Rajput by lacing his food at their Indra Nagar home on March 3, 2025. The prosecution said Shukla arrived shortly afterwards, and the two stabbed Rajput to death and dismembered his body. They then sealed the remains in a blue plastic drum filled with a mix of sand, water and cement, as per the FIR. The pair fled to Himachal Pradesh the next day. Rastogi used Rajput’s phone to text his family, making it appear that he was alive and travelling on business.
On March 17, 2025, relatives went to the house with local authorities after the couple’s six-year-old daughter reportedly told neighbours, “Papa is in the drum.” Police cut open the drum and found Rajput’s remains. Rastogi and Shukla were arrested two days later.
A death sentence handed down by a sessions court must be confirmed by the High Court before it can be carried out.
