Meerut murder: Accused drank, ordered cake on way to Himachal
The accused had mixed sedatives into her husband's food before killing him with her lover on March 4.
Muskaan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla purchased alcohol, ordered a birthday cake and visited a gurdwara during their 15-day trip to Himachal Pradesh from March 4, hours after they murdered Rastogi’s husband and dismembered his body in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, their cab driver, Ajab Singh, has revealed.
Rastogi and Shukla, both 27, were arrested on March 18, hours after the body of 29-year-old Saurabh Rajput was found stuffed inside a drum that was filled up with dust, cement, and water. The suspects allegedly mixed sedatives in Rajput’s food before killing him on March 4, after he returned from London where he worked in the merchant navy at a US-based shipping company.
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Police said Rastogi got into a relationship with her neighbour Shukla when Rajput got a job in the UK in 2020, leaving his wife and daughter in Meerut.
Lovers ‘barely spoke to each other’
The woman and her lover murdered Rajput and cut the body into 15 pieces while her daughter slept in the next room. The next day, Rastogi left her five-year-old daughter at her parents’ home and went to Shimla with Shukla.
According to Singh, who was hired to take the accused from Meerut to Shimla, Manali and Kasol in Himachal Pradesh, the two barely spoke to each other on the journey. “Most couples chat or laugh on such long drives, but they barely interacted,” Singh said.
“The woman made only two hushed phone calls to her mother, while Sahil routinely stopped for alcohol... In Shimla, she requested a birthday cake for Sahil via WhatsApp...,” he added.
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A viral video later showed her feeding Sahil the cake. On Holi in Manali, the couple participated in the festivities.
The couple spent six days in Kasol, he added. “They introduced themselves as husband and wife and rarely left their room,” a hotel staffer told police.
“They didn’t even ask for cleaning,” a hotel employee told police.
Meanwhile, officials familiar with the matter said that Muskan and Sahil were both displaying symptoms of drug withdrawal while in incarceration in Meerut District Jail. While Muskan has reportedly demanded morphine injections, Sahil is extremely restlessness without marijuana, official said. The prison’s medical team is administering de-addiction treatment to manage their symptoms, a jail official said.
