A court in Meerut has awarded the death penalty to Muskan Rastogi and her partner Sahil Shukla, the convicts in the blue drum murder case.
The two were found guilty on September 30 in the murder of Muskan's husband, ex-Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput.
Rajput's body was found in a concrete-filled blue plastic drum, thus the case being known so.
What happened?
The case concerns the murder of Saurabh Rajput, a former Merchant Navy officer, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, in March 2025. His wife, Muskan Rastogi, and her partner, Sahil Shukla, were convicted of the murder by a Meerut court on September 30, 2026.
According to reports by Hindustan Times and India Today, the prosecution alleged that Rajput was killed at his home on the night of March 3, 2025. His body was dismembered and concealed in a blue plastic drum sealed with cement. The case came to be known as the “blue drum murder” because of the method used to conceal the body.
Blue drum murder case: Key dates
- March 3, 2025: Rajput was murdered, according to the prosecution's account.
- March 18–19, 2025: A case was registered following a complaint by Rajput's brother. Police recovered the body from the drum and arrested Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla, according to Hindustan Times.
- September 30, 2026: A Meerut district court convicted Rastogi and Shukla of the murder after a trial involving 126 hearings and testimony from 22 prosecution witnesses, India Today and Hindustan Times reported.
- October 14, 2026: The court sentenced both convicts to death.
What did the court proceedings involve?
The trial examined circumstantial, medical and forensic evidence presented by the prosecution. The case attracted widespread attention because of the nature of the crime and the circumstances in which Rajput's body was discovered.
The prosecution sought the death penalty, arguing that the crime warranted the maximum punishment. The court has now awarded that sentence to both convicts. The death sentences remain subject to confirmation by the Allahabad High Court, as required under Indian criminal procedure.
