The woman and her boyfriend accused of stabbing her Merchant Navy officer husband and chopping up his body found themselves at the receiving end of the ire of over 100 lawyers when they were produced in a court in Meerut on Wednesday. The lawyers tried to assault the alleged killers, who were shielded by a team of police personnel, after they walked out of the courtroom and continued their efforts even after they were seated in a police vehicle.
One of the angry lawyers also climbed atop a car to try and attack the woman and her lover.
Muskaan Rastogi and her boyfriend Sahil Shukla were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court on Wednesday after being arrested for the murder of Muskaan’s husband, Saurabh Rajput. Muskaan and Sahil had allegedly drugged Saurabh before stabbing him to death, chopping up his body into 15 pieces and stuffing it in a drum which they sealed with cement.
Officials said there were no issues when Muskaan and Sahil were being produced in the courtroom but they started receiving information that a crowd of angry lawyers had begun gathering in the court complex. More police personnel were called in but they found themselves facing at least a hundred-strong crowd intent on thrashing Muskaan and Sahil.
Videos show the two alleged killers being protected by police personnel as they are taken down the steps of the court towards the waiting lawyers. Shouts of “taiyyar raho” (stay ready) and “maaro” (attack) can be heard as the lawyers try to assault Muskaan and Sahil. The lawyers are pushed away by the police, but a couple of them land blows before another climbs atop an SUV and tries to hit the alleged killers from above.
The personnel keep pushing the lawyers as they try and take Muskaan and Sahil towards a waiting police car. A lawyer manages to elbow one of the alleged killers as they are being seated in the car and another can be seen hitting them from the front passenger window of the vehicle. The car finally manages to get moving, leaving the crowd behind.
Earlier on Wednesday, Superintendent of Police (Meerut City) Ayush Vikram Singh said Saurabh’s murder was plotted entirely by Muskaan, who conceived the plan in November last year.
Mr Singh said Muskaan had convinced her boyfriend, who regularly consumed narcotics, that his dead mother was speaking to him through a Snapchat account that she had created. This ploy was also used by her to ensure Sahil got involved in the murder plot.
(With inputs by Shyam Parmar)
