Merchant Navy Officer, Who Returned From London For Daughter's B'day, Killed By Wife, Her Lover; Body Chopped, Stuffed Into Drum
Saurabh Rajput's last remains were recovered 15 days after his murder while his wife Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla were arrested, police said.
Published : March 19, 2025 at 3:51 PM IST
|Updated : March 19, 2025 at 4:00 PM IST
Meerut: A Merchant Navy Officer was allegedly stabbed to death and his body chopped and hidden in a drum by his estranged wife and her lover in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district.
The murder came to light when the officer's mother-in-law informed police that her daughter had confessed to the crime. The victim, identified as Saurabh Rajput, 29, a resident of Indira Nagar in Meerut, was last seen on March 4. He was posted in London and had recently returned home to celebrate his daughter's birthday on February 25.
During interrogation, Saurabh's wife, Muskan Rastogi, confessed that she killed her husband on March 4 with the help of her lover, Sahil Shukla. She had allegedly laced Saurabh's food with sedatives and when he fell asleep, she called her lover. They stabbed Saurabh with a knife and chopped his body into 15 pieces.
After this, they went to the market to buy a large drum, cement and sand. They then put the body pieces into the drum and sealed it with cement. Muskan locked the house and left her daughter with her mother. She informed her in-laws that she was going for a vacation with her husband to Manali in Himachal Pradesh.
In actuality, she went to Manali with Sahil and spent several days at the hill station, where the couple got married at a temple. Muskan, who carried Saurabh's mobile phone with her, replied from his WhatsApp number and uploaded photographs on social media so that nobody could suspect anything.
Meanwhile, when Saurabh's family members failed to speak to him for many days, his brother came to Indira Nagar to meet him. He could not find Saurabh at the house and spoke to the neighbours about his whereabouts. He got suspicious when Muskan came to the house with Sahil sometime later and he also spotted the large drum.
During interrogation, it was revealed that Muskaan was desperate to withdraw Rs six lakh from her husband's account and had asked her mother about the procedure involved in the withdrawal. When her mother asked her where Saurabh was, she had confessed how she and Sahil had killed him and then disposed of the body in a drum. Her mother was shocked and immediately called the police, revealing her daughter's crime.
On information, police reached the spot and when Muskan was questioned, she started panicking. Police interrogated Sahil and Muskan separately, but both had different versions. Following strict interrogation, they finally confessed.
Police found the drum but despite struggling for hours failed to break through the hard cement. Then the drum was shifted to the mortuary and a drill machine was used for recovering the last remains.
The police have registered a case based on the complaint of Saurabh's family and both Muskan and Sahil have been arrested, a police official said. Saurabh and Muskan got married in 2016 after dating for a year and have a daughter. In 2019, Muskan came in contact with Sahil, a resident of Meerut. She got into a relationship with Sahil while her husband was posted in London.
Muskan and Sahil told police that they were drug addicts and had killed Saurabh under the influence of drugs. A pall of gloom has descended at Saurabh's house. His father Munna Lal and mother Renu are in shock and grief after hearing about their son's death.
