MEERUT — The Meerut blue drum murder case, one of the most chilling crimes to grip India in recent years, reached its verdict on Wednesday when a district court sentenced Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla to death for the brutal murder of her husband, former Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput. The Meerut blue drum murder had shocked the nation after investigators found Rajput’s dismembered body concealed inside a large blue plastic drum sealed with cement at the couple’s home.
District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the death sentence on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, capping a trial that stretched across 126 hearings and featured testimony from more than 22 witnesses. The Meerut blue drum murder trial had kept the country riveted for over a year, with the prosecution building its case almost entirely on circumstantial, forensic and scientific evidence.
Meerut blue drum murder: death sentence after a 13-month trial
The court had convicted Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla on September 30, 2026, for murder and destruction of evidence in the Meerut blue drum murder case. Before pronouncing the sentence on Wednesday, the judge asked both convicts whether they had committed any previous offences. Sahil Shukla denied having committed any earlier crime, according to reports from the courtroom.
During the sentencing arguments, the prosecution sought the death penalty for both accused, arguing that the sheer brutality of the Meerut blue drum murder placed it in the rarest-of-rare category. The defence, on the other hand, appealed for a lesser punishment. Lawyers present in the court had demanded the harshest possible punishment for Muskan and Sahil, and the court agreed with the prosecution’s case.
The death penalty marks the sentencing stage of the case, though the verdict remains subject to the applicable appeal process. In India, a death sentence pronounced by a sessions court must be confirmed by the High Court before it can be carried out, and the convicts retain the right to appeal.
How the Meerut blue drum murder unfolded
The Meerut blue drum murder dates back to March 2025. Saurabh Rajput, a resident of Meerut’s Indira Nagar who worked as a Merchant Navy officer in London, had returned to his home on February 24, 2025. According to the prosecution, his presence soon became an obstacle to the relationship between his wife Muskan and her lover Sahil Shukla, and the two hatched a conspiracy to kill him.
On March 3, 2025, Muskan, in collusion with Sahil Shukla, murdered Saurabh Rajput at their residence. According to the prosecution’s case, the accused first sedated Rajput with narcotic drugs to knock him out. They then dismembered his body into several pieces and packed the remains into a large blue plastic drum, which was sealed with cement to conceal the crime. After the murder, the two went off on a trip to Shimla, behaving as though nothing had happened.
The case came to light after Rajput’s family grew concerned about his whereabouts. Police later discovered his remains inside the cement-filled drum at the house, setting off an investigation that eventually led to the arrest of Muskan and Sahil. The gruesome details of the Meerut blue drum murder — the sedation, the dismemberment, the cement-sealed drum — drew nationwide revulsion and dominated headlines for weeks.
The Meerut blue drum murder trial: 126 hearings, 22 witnesses
The Meerut blue drum murder case reached the court on March 17, 2025, while Muskan and Sahil were sent to Meerut jail on March 19. The trial was transferred to the district judge’s court in July 2025, and arguments continued for around 13 months before the conviction on September 30, 2026.
Investigators collected a web of circumstantial, forensic and technical evidence during the probe. The prosecution presented evidence relating to the alleged purchase of the drum, the cement and other materials used to conceal the body, along with records concerning the accused’s movements. Shopkeepers who sold the materials used in the crime testified as witnesses, helping the prosecution establish the chain of events.
District government counsel Krishna Kumar Chaubey had told the court before the conviction that all facts had been placed before it and all witnesses had recorded their testimonies, leaving nothing but the pronouncement of the verdict. The Meerut blue drum murder trial became a test case for how circumstantial evidence, when backed by forensic science, can secure convictions in even the most sensational crimes.
Why the Meerut blue drum murder shocked India
Few crimes in recent memory have disturbed the public conscience the way the Meerut blue drum murder did. The calculated cruelty of the killing — a husband sedated, dismembered and entombed in cement while his killers holidayed in Shimla — turned the case into a national talking point, sparking furious debates on television, social media and in drawing rooms across the country.
The case also raised uncomfortable questions about trust within marriages and the extremes of illicit relationships. But beyond the sensationalism, the Meerut blue drum murder highlighted the critical role of forensic investigation in modern Indian policing: with no eyewitness to the killing itself, it was painstaking scientific and circumstantial evidence that carried the prosecution’s case to conviction.
For the residents of Meerut, the verdict brought a measure of closure to a saga that had cast a long shadow over the city. Saurabh Rajput’s family, which had arrived at the court ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, had waited more than 18 months for this day.
The Meerut blue drum murder also reignited a wider public debate about sentencing in India, with many citizens demanding swift and severe punishment in brutal crimes, while legal experts cautioned that the multi-layered appeals process exists precisely to guard against irreversible errors in capital cases.
What happens next in the Meerut blue drum murder case
The death sentence in the Meerut blue drum murder case is not the final word. Under Indian law, the verdict will now go through the mandatory confirmation process before the High Court, and the convicts can appeal the conviction and sentence. The defence is widely expected to challenge the verdict, which could extend the legal battle for years.
Legal experts note that while trial courts pronounce death sentences in the rarest-of-rare cases, higher courts frequently commute them — though the sheer brutality of the Meerut blue drum murder may weigh heavily against the convicts at every stage.
For now, Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla remain lodged in Meerut jail. The Meerut blue drum murder has entered the history books as one of the most horrifying domestic crimes of the decade — and its final chapter, in the higher courts, is yet to be written.
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Source: Hindustan Times
Photos: symbolic editorial illustrations generated for LB Daily News.
