The grisly murder of a Merchant Navy officer in Meerut, whose body was chopped up and dumped in a drum, was planned by his wife, who convinced her boyfriend that his mother was speaking to him – through Snapchat – from beyond the grave, police said on Wednesday.
Officials also said that the wife had been planning her husband’s murder since November. She had purchased two knives, telling the shopkeeper she would use them to cut chicken, days before her husband’s return and had also pretended to have anxiety so she could visit a doctor and access the pills she would need to put him to sleep before killing him.
Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput was killed by his wife, Muskaan Rastogi, and Sahil Shukla, with whom she was having an extramarital affair, on March 4. Rajput’s body was then chopped into 15 pieces and dumped in a drum, which was sealed with cement, while his killers tried to figure out a way to dispose of it without arousing suspicion.
Muskaan’s family has said that both she and Sahil did drugs regularly and one of the possible reasons that they killed Saurabh was that he would “stop their drug sessions”. Sahil’s dependence on drugs also made him susceptible to one of Muskaan’s sinister plans in the lead-up to the murder – she made an account on the social media messaging app Snapchat and managed to convince her lover that her dead mother was using it to speak to him.
“The account was not in the name of Sahil’s mother but the messages were sent by Muskaan in a way that she made him believe that his dead mother had reincarnated and was speaking to him. She used this as a means of controlling Sahil and, later, convincing him to kill her husband, Saurabh. The entire plotting was done by Muskaan, who hatched the murder plan in November” said Superintendent of Police (Meerut City) Ayush Vikram Singh.
Elaborate Plan
Mr Singh said that after deciding to kill Saurabh, Muskaan began scouting for places where she could bury his body. She told her friends she needed to bury some material she had used in a puja (prayer ritual) and even asked where one could bury a body. But the friends did not help her find a place.
Muskaan, the police officer said, then found out that Saurabh, who had been working in London since 2023, would return to Meerut in February to celebrate the birthday of their six-year-old daughter.
“On February 22, she bought two knives for Rs 800, saying she needed them to cut chicken. She also pretended to have anxiety and went to a doctor to get a prescription. She then looked up the names of two medicines online that she could use to render Saurabh unconscious and added them to the prescription so she could purchase them,” said Mr Singh.
The officer said that Saurabh returned on February 24 and, the next day, Muskaan mixed the medicines in his alcohol, but he did not drink.
Muskaan and Sahil kept looking for an opportunity and stabbed Saurabh to death after drugging him on March 4.
Failed Gambit
Saurabh’s family had not been on good terms with him since he had married Muskaan against their wish in 2016 and then moved out of the house to live with her in a rented apartment. Mr Singh said this and the fact that he used to drink regularly had led to his family practically disowning him.
“He used to go to his parents’ house to eat, but they did not have much of a relationship. He used to stay away from the city for days and had been abroad for two years, but his family did not contact him much. Muskaan knew about this and she was banking on it to be able to tell the family after killing and burying him that he had gone abroad and would not return,” the police officer said.
After killing Saurabh, Muskaan told everyone that he had gone to a hill station. She then went to Manali with Sahil and uploaded photos from Saurabh’s phone to lend weight to her story. She also exchanged texts with members of Saurabh’s family, including his sister, but the plan unravelled when they became suspicious that he wasn’t answering their calls. They then filed a police complaint and Muskaan and Sahil were arrested when they returned from Manali and she confessed to her parents that she had killed Saurabh.
Drug Den?
Sahil’s rented home, which he shared with two other men, has several drawings on the wall which point to its occupants being into narcotics. A video shows a mural depicting what appears to be Satan with the number 6 arranged around a star polygon. Several beer cans can be seen lying on the floor next to another mural reading, “You can’t trip with us…”
Apart from religious images, there is also a drawing of what appears to be a joint being passed from one hand to the other with the words, “Puff puff pass”.