MEERUT: Lodged in separate barracks — about 1.5 km apart — at Meerut District Jail since March 19, the prison’s latest undertrials Muskan Rastogi and Sahil Shukla (both 27) are grappling with severe withdrawal symptoms from their drug addictions and “are being closely monitored to prevent escalation”, a jail official said on Saturday.
Read also: ‘Muskan Rastogi is demanding injections, Sahil Shukla restless without Marijuana’: How Saurabh Rajput murder accused are spending nights in jail
The official added that their request to stay in close proximity has also been turned down. Also, none of their immediate family members have come to see them so far.
Incarcerated for the brutal murder of her husband, ex-merchant navy officer Saurabh Rajput, 29, Muskan has been “demanding injections” and her lover Sahil is “restless for marijuana doses”, the official said.
She is eating very little and sits alone in one corner. Her lover is also showing signs of distress and discomfort, the jail official added. “They have been confined in barrack 12 (usually for women undertrials) and barrack 18 of the prison’s ‘reception centre’. A medical team is administering anti-addiction medicines. It will take them around 10 days to get used to the new environment.”
Read also: Who is Muskan Rastogi? Meerut woman’s web of deceit in brutal killing of Saurabh Rajput
SSP Meerut Dr Vipin Tada further said on Saturday that they are now trying to get this case tried in a fast-track court.
Investigations revealed that Sahil and Muskan were taking drugs over the years, after they “reconnected in 2019”. Not just drugs, police also found Sahil’s room filled with tantric symbols, satanic graffiti and cryptic messages, purportedly indicating an “obsession with black magic”.
Read also: Meerut murder: ‘Muskan Rastogi, her lover Sahil Shukla requested to stay close in jail’
Saurabh, who recently returned to India from the UK to celebrate his wife’s birthday, was brutally killed and once he died, the body was dismembered and placed in a cement-filled drum for a fortnight.
It all happened reportedly on the night of March 4 in Saurabh’s rented place in the city’s Brahmpuri neighbourhood. His head was also “severed”. Muskan and Sahil then left for a 12-day holiday to Shimla.
Initial reports suggest a complex web of personal and financial disputes, but investigators are yet to establish the full extent of the accused’s involvement and their intent. Subsequent probe findings revealed that both had a strong craving for drugs.
Saurabh’s mother Renu Devi, meanwhile, alleged that Muskan’s parents were involved in the crime and that they merely wanted to mislead the cops. Muskan’s mother, Kavita Rastogi, had earlier condemned the incident severely, adding that “it would have been better if Muskan had never been born.”
