'Should be hanged': Parents of Meerut woman demand maximum punishment for murder accused daughter

Police said Saurabh and Muskan married in 2016

The parents of Muskan Rastogi, who allegedly murdered her husband in collusion with her lover, sought the “harshest punishment” for her.

Muskan’s parents, Pramod Kumar Rastogi and Kavita Rastogi, told NDTV that she must receive the “harshest punishment for doing this to Saurabh, who loved her blindly".

According to reports, Saurabh Rajput (35), a Merchant Navy officer working for a US-based company, was stabbed to death by his wife Muskaan and her lover Sahil Shukla. Saurabh had come home in February for his six-year-old daughter's birthday.

The crime took place on March 4 in Meerut’s Brahmpuri region. Rajput’s decomposed body was discovered nearly 15 days later in a rented apartment in Indiranagar. Muskaan and her lover Sahil Shukla stabbed Saurabh to death, chopped up his body in 15 pieces and sealed them with cement in a plastic drum. After committing the murder, Muskan reportedly went on a vacation to a hill station with Sahil.

Muskaan’s parents told NDTV that she had visited them after returning from the hills. "She confessed that she had killed Saurabh and we immediately took her to the police station. She told us, 'Mummy, we killed Saurabh'," said Muskaan's mother Kavita Rastogi. According to Kavita, Saurabh was "blindly in love" with Muskaan. "Our daughter was the problem. She got him separated from his family. And she has now done this,” she said.

The Rastogis said they are firmly with Saurabh's family. "That's why we got her arrested. They should get justice. He (Saurabh) put everything at stake, left his parents, their property worth crores. And she got him (killed). He was our son too," Muskaan’s mother told NDTV.

Muskaan’s parents said that “she should be hanged”. “She has lost the right to live,” they told NDTV.

Saurabh’s murder came to light after Muskaan's mother approached the police, revealing that her daughter had confessed to the crime. Police arrested both Muskan and Sahil, who led them to the house where the body was hidden. However, the police were initially unable to open the drum due to the hardened cement. The police had to send it to the mortuary, where the drum was eventually cut open to recover the body.

According to police, Saurabh and Muskaan married in 2016 despite family opposition and lived in a rented apartment.