Sahil Shukla and Muskan Rastogi

BAREILLY: After facing months of social boycott, including during festivals, the family of Muskan Rastogi, the prime accused in Meerut’s ‘blue drum murder case’ that hit national headlines in March, purportedly pasted a ‘house for sale’ notice on their residence and now plans to leave the city where they lived for years.Muskan’s father, Pramod Rastogi, said, “We no longer wish to stay in Meerut. We have got painful memories here… People have completely boycotted us. This was the first Diwali when no one visited our home. My daughter used to give tuitions, but now no parents want to send their children to our place. People don’t want to talk to us anymore.”

After the murder of former Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput, the family’s jewellery business also collapsed and Muskan’s sister lost her source of income through tuitions.On March 3, 2025, Muskan, 28, was accused of brutally killing her husband and hiding the remains. Her lover Sahil Shukla helped her in the crime. On March 19, Saurabh’s body — in a dismembered state — was found inside a sealed, cement-filled blue drum at his Meerut home. The accused duo was arrested after they returned from a trip to Himachal Pradesh. Both are now lodged in Meerut jail.Meanwhile, locals claimed that “Muskan’s family had started behaving weirdly after the March incident”. Himanshu Kumar, a resident of Brahmpuri, said, “I’ve seen Pramod beating stray dogs for no reason. I confronted him a few times, but he continues to do so…”Another resident, Vijay Singh, said: “Almost everyone in the neighbourhood has stopped talking to them out of fear that police might include them in the investigation, if they do so.”Notably, pictures of ‘house for sale’ signboard appeared outside their residence in Indira Nagar, Brahmpuri, on Wednesday. The notice was taken down soon after, locals claimed.