Police in Meerut,Uttar Pradesh, uncovered a gruesome murder where a Merchant Navy officer was killed, his body cut into around 15 pieces and sealed in a drum with cement. The shocking crime was linked to an extramarital affair between Saurabh Rajput's wife, Muskaan Rastogi, and her lover, Sahil Shukla. As the investigation progressed, a chilling story of love, betrayal, and brutality came to light.

Saurabh Rajput and Muskaan Rastogi had a love marriage in 2016. Wanting to spend more time with his wife, Saurabh quit his Merchant Navy job, but his decision didn’t sit well with his family, leading to conflicts at home. To avoid further tension, he and Muskaan moved into a rented house.

In 2019, they welcomed a daughter, but their happiness was short-lived. Saurabh discovered that Muskaan was having an affair with his friend Sahil, which caused serious strain in their marriage. They even considered divorce, but Saurabh eventually decided to stay for the sake of their daughter. Wanting to secure their future, he chose to return to the Merchant Navy and, in 2023, left the country for work.

Saurabh's daughter turned six on February 28, and as a loving father, he returned home on February 24 to celebrate with her. However, by this time, Muskaan and Sahil had grown closer and had already planned to kill him.

According to their confession to the police, on March 4, Muskaan mixed sleeping pills into Saurabh’s food. Once he was unconscious, she and Sahil attacked him with a knife, killing him. They then chopped his body into pieces, placed them in a drum, and sealed it with wet cement, intending to dispose of it later.

To avoid suspicion after Saurabh’s disappearance, Muskaan told neighbours he had gone to a hill station. To make it more believable, she and Sahil travelled to Kausani, Uttarakhand, using Saurabh’s phone to post pictures on his social media. However, when Saurabh did not respond to his family’s calls for several days, they grew worried and filed a police complaint.

The shocking truth

After the complaint, police detained Muskaan and Sahil for questioning. Under pressure, they broke down and confessed to the brutal murder, revealing where they had hidden Saurabh’s body. When police located the drum, they struggled to break through the hardened cement with a hammer and chisel. Eventually, the drum was taken to the mortuary, where a drill machine was used to recover Saurabh’s remains,14 days after the murder.

Police statement

Meerut City police chief Ayush Vikram Singh stated that Saurabh's family filed a complaint after he went missing for several days. "On suspicion, we took Muskaan and her lover Sahil into custody. During interrogation, they confessed to killing Saurabh on March 4, chopping up his body, and sealing it in a cement-filled drum. The body has been recovered and sent for autopsy. The accused have been arrested and will be presented in court," he said.

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