New Delhi: Working as a baker in London for the last two years, Meerut man Saurabh Rajput returned home to his wife and daughter on 24 February this year.
Married to Muskan Rastogi, also from Meerut, Saurabh had to come home because the expiry date of his passport was nearing.
On Tuesday night, Meerut City Police arrested Muskan, along with her lover Sahil Shukla, for Saurabh’s murder.
While in London, Saurabh, police said, had refused to agree to his wife’s demand for a divorce for at least two years. However, he was unaware of the conspiracy underway at his home. Nearly a week after he arrived in Meerut, Saurabh went missing and was incommunicado with his family members living in different parts of the city.
When Meerut police received a complaint from his family and questioned Muskan about his whereabouts, the plot of his murder, executed on 4 March, unravelled.
In front of the police, Muskan allegedly confessed to killing Saurabh and disposing of his body parts in a drum and sealing it with cement at their residence in Brahmpuri Colony, Meerut, with the help of her lover, Sahil.
A local court sent the lovers to judicial custody.
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‘Body did not fit in the bag’
On Tuesday afternoon, Saurabh’s cousin Bablu approached Brahmpuri police station, alleging that Saurabh went missing on 5 March and raising doubts that his sister-in-law, Muskan, could be behind his disappearance.
Considering the allegations, Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada constituted a team, including Brahmpuri Circle Officer Antriksh Jain, and City Superintendent of Police Ayush Vikram Singh, who supervised the investigation into Saurabh’s disappearance.
As the complainant had named Muskan and Sahil, the police picked them up for questioning. During their interrogation, the lovers allegedly revealed the murder plot and sequence of events, leading to their arrest.
Muskan allegedly confessed that she used intoxicating substances in Saurabh’s meal to make him lose consciousness on 4 March. Then, Sahil allegedly joined her in killing her husband with a freshly bought knife and blade from the local market.
During further rounds of questioning, Muskan and Sahil revealed before the investigating officers that they mutilated Saurabh’s body and planned to dispose of the pieces in a bag. However, when they failed to fit the pieces into the bag, they allegedly bought a plastic drum and sand and cement next day to seal the body parts inside the drum.
All of it allegedly happened in the house Muskan and Saurabh shared. Later, the lovers left for Shimla and returned to the same house on Monday.
While the lovers were allegedly busy with the murder, the six-year-old daughter of Muskan and Saurabh stayed at the home of her maternal grandparents, where they had sent the child ahead of time.
Rastogi and Rajput allegedly had a fractious marriage for at least two years.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
First of all, I wish the media would stop displaying the pictures of people accused/convicted of such heinous crimes so prominently. They are not celebrities and we don’t need to see their faces. Second, I hope these “lovers” spend the rest of their lives behind bars. That should give them enough time to reflect on their actions.