In Meerut Blue Drum Murder, Judge Cites The Gita While Awarding Death Sentence

The Meerut court that sentenced Muskaan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla to death for the murder of Rastogi's husband, merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, referred to the Bhagavad Gita while pronouncing the sentence on Wednesday, according to the lawyer representing the victim's side.

"The judge cited references from the Mahabharata, affirming that the court would perform its duty, as 'dharma also means punishing those who commit wrongs'. Despite significant efforts by the defence," Saurabh Rajput's lawyer said outside court. The detailed judgment was awaited.

The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Mahabharata, records Lord Krishna's discourse to the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. In it, Krishna urges Arjuna to fulfil his duty, or dharma.

District Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra pronounced the sentence two weeks after convicting the pair. The trial ran through 126 hearings, and 22 witnesses gave statements.

The court held that Rastogi and Shukla conspired to kill Rajput and concealed his dismembered body inside a blue industrial drum using concrete and sand.

The judge also said such crimes create fear in society at large.

Earlier on Wednesday, Rastogi's parents told the court that Rajput was a "very good person". They said that if the guilty were sentenced to death, "we will not protest". Rastogi's family never met her in prison.

According to the police case, Rastogi sedated Rajput by lacing his food at their Indra Nagar home on March 3, 2025. The prosecution said Shukla arrived shortly afterwards, and the two stabbed Rajput to death and dismembered his body in the bathroom. The investigation found that they packed the body parts into a large blue plastic drum, filled it with a wet mix of sand, water and cement to suppress the odour of decomposition, and sealed it.

The pair fled to Himachal Pradesh the next day. Rastogi used Rajput's mobile phone to text his family, making it appear that he was alive and travelling on business.

On March 17, 2025, suspicious relatives went to the house with local authorities. The couple's six-year-old daughter had reportedly told neighbours, "Papa is in the drum." Police cut open the sealed drum and found Rajput's remains. Rastogi and Shukla were arrested two days later.

At trial, the prosecution relied on a chain of circumstantial, technical and physical evidence. Local shopkeepers testified that they had sold the blue drum, cement bags, sand, cleavers and razors to the accused before the murder. Call detail records and mobile tower data placed Shukla at the house when the crime was committed. The same data traced the pair's joint movements to hotel stays in Shimla and Manali. The post-mortem confirmed that Rajput had been stabbed to death.