Just 11 days after killing her husband, chopping up his body and leaving it to rot in a cement-lined drum, Muskaan Rastogi was playing Holi with her lover Sahil Shukla in Manali, laughing and posing for a video as if nothing had happened.
In the video from Holi, which was celebrated on March 14, Muskaan and Sahil can be seen smiling at the camera with their faces covered in colour. They sway lightly, their cheeks pressed against each other while Sahil, who appears to be high, makes some happy gestures with his right hand. Music can be heard in the background and other people can also be seen, indicating that they were celebrating the festival with a group.
The couple had visited Shimla and Manali after the murder and another video from their Himachal Pradesh trip has surfaced in which Muskaan is seen feeding Sahil a piece of cake before saying “happy birthday” and kissing him. Some photos from the trip also show Muskaan walking in the snow.
Muskaan and Sahil have been arrested for killing her husband – and Sahil’s friend – former Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput in Meerut on March 3 after drugging him. After killing Saurabh, they chopped up his body into 15 pieces and then dumped it in a drum which they sealed with cement with the intention of disposing of it in a place where it couldn’t be found. Police said they have confessed to the murder.
Multiple Attempts
Muskaan and Saurabh had a love marriage in 2016 and she began an affair with his friend, Sahil, some time later. Saurabh found out about the affair in 2021, after their landlord had spotted Muskaan and Sahil in an “objectionable” position and had also filed for a divorce, but was convinced by his family to stay with his wife.
Saurabh, who had been working at a bakery in London since 2023, had returned to Meerut on February 24 to celebrate the sixth birthday of his and Muskaan’s daughter. Muskaan had been planning his murder for months and had already purchased two knives, telling the shopkeeper she would use them to cut chicken. She had also pretended to have anxiety so she could visit a doctor and access the pills she would need to make him unconscious before killing him.
Muskaan had also created a Snapchat account and made Sahil, who was into drugs, believe that his dead mother was speaking to him from beyond the grave. She later used this method to convince Sahil that they needed to kill Saurabh.
Superintendent of Police (Meerut City) Ayush Vikram Singh said Muskaan and Sahil attempted to kill Saurabh on February 25 but failed to do so. They then drugged him and stabbed him to death on March 3.
The murder had come to light after Muskaan and Sahil returned from their trip. Muskaan had told her mother that she and Sahil had killed Saurabh because they thought he would “stop their drug sessions”.
(With inputs from Shyam Parmar)