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.
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.
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.