StatesUttar Pradesh
Meerut court sentences Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla to death for 'blue drum' murder
The district judge rejected pleas for leniency in the killing of merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, whose body was sealed in a cement-filled drum in March 2025.
Key points
- District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra sentenced both accused to death on Wednesday.
- The verdict came after 126 hearings and statements from 22 witnesses.
- Saurabh Rajput was killed on 3 March 2025 and his body hidden in a blue drum filled with wet cement.
A court in Meerut on Wednesday sentenced Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla to death for the murder of her husband, merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, in a case that shocked Uttar Pradesh and became known across the country as the “blue drum” murder.
District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra, who had convicted the pair on 30 September, handed down the sentence after a trial that ran to 126 hearings and heard 22 witnesses. Both were found guilty of murder and of hiding the body. The court also fined them ₹50,000 on the murder charge and ₹20,000 on the second count.
What happened in March 2025
The prosecution’s case was that on 3 March 2025, Rastogi laced her husband’s food with a sedative. Shukla then came to the house, and the two stabbed Rajput, cut up his body and sealed the parts in a blue plastic drum which they filled with wet cement.
A case was registered on 17 March 2025 and both were sent to Meerut jail two days later. The trial moved to the district judge’s court in July 2025, and arguments went on for about 13 months.
How the case was proved
Nobody saw the killing, and the defence leaned on that. It also asked for mercy on the ground that both accused have daughters. The judge was not persuaded and pointed to the strength of the prosecution’s evidence.
Prosecutor Vijay Bahadur said the case rested on circumstantial evidence laid out step by step, with every witness supporting it. Local shopkeepers testified that they had sold the drum, cement, sand, cleavers and razors to the accused. Call records and mobile tower locations placed Shukla at the house at the time of the crime, and investigators traced the pair’s hotel stays in Shimla and Manali in the days after. The post-mortem confirmed that Rajput had been stabbed to death.
When he convicted the two last month, Judge Mishra said the act had “no place in a civilised society”. Rajput’s mother, Renu Devi, had asked the court for the death penalty for both.
What comes next
Advocate Krishan Kumar Dubey called Wednesday’s verdict historic, noting that death sentences for women are rare. A death sentence passed by a sessions court cannot be carried out unless the High Court confirms it, and the convicts can appeal to the Allahabad High Court.
For Rajput’s family, the sentence closes a case that has run for more than a year and a half, and gives them the punishment they had asked for from the start.