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A district and sessions judge in Meerut imposed the death penalty on Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla after convicting them of murder and evidence tampering in a case that drew national attention for its brutality. Judge Arvind Kumar Mishra made the ruling on October 14, 2026 following a 13-month trial that featured 126 hearings and testimony from 22 prosecution witnesses, according to reports from The Week and India Today. The sentences, which include fines of 50,000 rupees each under the murder charge, require confirmation by the Allahabad High Court and can be appealed further to the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors told the court that Rastogi laced her husband’s food with sedatives obtained under false pretenses shortly after he returned from London in late February 2025 to mark family birthdays. Once unconscious, Shukla joined her in stabbing Saurabh Rajput before the pair used cleavers to dismember the body into 15 pieces and seal the remains inside a large blue plastic drum filled with cement, sand and water. The grim discovery occurred on March 17 when suspicious relatives visited the Meerut home, prompting police to recover the drum and register a case at Brahmpuri station the next day.
Rastogi and Shukla, who knew each other from their school days, had grown close during the victim’s extended absences while he worked overseas, according to the prosecution case detailed by Business Today. The couple had eloped and married in 2016, producing a daughter before the affair resumed and led to the plot, with the pair fleeing to Uttarakhand afterward and using Rajput’s phone to send deceptive messages suggesting he remained alive and traveling. Police recovered the body based on information from the accused following their arrest upon return.
The trial featured a chargesheet spanning nearly 1,000 pages with final arguments wrapping up on September 17 before the September 30 conviction, India Today reported. During sentencing proceedings the victim’s mother Renu expressed relief at the outcome and thanked authorities for their support throughout, according to The Tribune, while the defense cited Rastogi’s recent childbirth in custody to plead for leniency on behalf of her two young daughters. Judge Mishra referenced the Mahabharata in observing that punishment proportionate to the crime also constitutes dharma, prosecution lawyer Krishna Kumar Chaubey told local media outlets.
National Crime Records Bureau figures show murders motivated by illicit relationships and love affairs exceeded 2,800 cases across India in 2023, providing broader context for a crime that prosecutors described as cold-blooded and premeditated since late 2023. Uttar Pradesh, which recorded 3,218 murder cases in 2024 with a crime rate below the national average, has pursued strict enforcement in such matters with the state government reporting 48 death penalties handed down for heinous crimes between mid-2023 and late 2024. This verdict marks the first death sentence for a woman in Meerut, where two prior cases had seen men receive capital punishment, according to district counsel statements carried by Deccan Herald.
Both convicts appeared via video conference from jail and reportedly had little to say when offered a final opportunity to address the court before the ruling. The victim’s family had consistently demanded the maximum punishment, citing the calculated nature of the killing and subsequent cover-up that involved advance purchase of materials used in the crime. Court officials noted an unusually large public gathering at the complex to witness the proceedings in a case that had captivated attention since the blue drum’s contents were first revealed.
