Meerut blue drum murder: Muskan and Sahil convicted

The verdict landed as Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla watched from jail, their faces described as focused and composed by authorities during the online hearing²³. In a case that spanned more than a year of legal cadence and public attention, the Meerut district court, after 126 hearings and testimony from more than 22 witnesses, found both guilty of murdering Saurabh Rajput and concealing his body inside a cement filled blue drum^11,22.

Prosecution evidence triangulated a convergence of data and testimony: call records that traced intimate connections between the accused and Rajput, hotel and travel records that mapped movements around the time of the crime, shop witness testimony that corroborated arrangements leading to the crime, and forensic findings that collectively tied the couple to the dismemberment and disposal of Rajput’s remains in March 2025^2,8,12. The judge emphasized that the crime sent a chilling message about fear in society, while noting the brutal method of drugging, stabbing, dismembering, and sealing the body in a blue drum to hide the crime from public view^7,33.

Questions of punishment now move to a separate hearing, with the prosecution seeking the maximum penalty and the defense urging leniency, especially given arguments about the victims’ family hardship and the legal process over 13 months^10,25.

The family and public reaction reflects a demand for a strong sentence to deter future violence, with sentencing set to follow roughly two weeks after the verdict^35,39.