As the country reels from the bloodbath Donald Trump’s tariff unleashed on the market and consumers come to terms with increasing cooking gas prices, mainstream Hindi TV news channels turned their attention to a more pressing issue: establishing the paternity of an unborn child.
After the murder of 29-year-old Saurabh Rajput allegedly by his wife Muskan Rastogi and her lover Sahil Shukla in Meerut hit the headlines last month, news channels have been unable to tear themselves away from the minutiae of the sensational crime. After dedicating hours of screen time to the murals painted on the walls of Sahil’s rooms, the time Muskan and he spent together in the hills “partying,” news channels are now obsessed with Muskan’s reported pregnancy. Muskan is currently in judicial custody in Meerut, as is Sahil.
“Kya Muskan iss bacche ko janam degi? (Will Muskan give birth to this child?)” asked a reporter on one news channel, and whether Muskan being pregnant was “good news” or not, wondered a narrator on another. These news channels, however, did not mention how the pregnancy was relevant to the investigation into Saurabh’s murder.
Pregnancy does not shield a woman from prosecution or sentencing in India. However, it is a relevant factor for courts to take into account, especially during bail hearings and when deciding the conditions of imprisonment. Indian courts have granted bail to pregnant women accused of murder, and even convicts, to safeguard the health of the mother and the unborn child on previous occasions.
The home ministry’s Model Prison Manual calls for proper pre-natal and ante natal care of pregnant inmates. The manual also mandates adequate and timely food, a healthy environment and opportunities for regular exercise to be provided to pregnant prisoners.
Muskan, who has been in judicial custody since March 19, was found pregnant in a routine medical check up on Monday, jail officials told the media. Ever since the development, news channels have been discussing non-stop if the father of the unborn child is Saurabh or Sahil.
Channels have been fervently occupied with everything remotely unusual with those involved in the case since the start. The graffiti in Sahil’s rooms has been the subject of several news segments on news channels, even prompting them to link the crime to “black magic,” a claim the Meerut police has denied. Previously, a Times Now ticker had called the sketches and “strange” symbols painted on the walls “satanic,” as ABP News and Zee News implied the crime was a result of “black magic” in its news segments.
Newslaundry takes a look at how Hindi news channels reported on the latest development without expanding on how it was relevant to the crime.
News 18 India
‘Kaatil’ Muskan ke pet mein kiska baccha?” (loosely translated as “who is the father of Muskan’ child?” ran a ticker on News18 Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand which announced Muskan’s pregnancy was “breaking news”. The News 18 India reporter also claimed that the Meerut jail administration had “covered up” news of Muskan being “unwell,” but the “truth was revealed after the pregnancy report today.”
The reporter further said: “Ab tamaam cheezein iss mukadmein mein dilchasp mod lengi. Saurabh ki patni Muskan ko jab ye patah chala ki woh pregnant hai, toh uske chehre ki hawaiyan udd gayi, Muskan nervous dikhayi di…aur abhi tak iss khabar ka Sahil ko patah hi nahi hai. Kyunki kai aise videos viral bhi huye the, Saurabh ki hatya ke baad, jisme Muskan Sahil ke saath nazar aayi. Woh Kasol mein honeymoon aur partiyaan manate huye nazar aa rahi thi, Muskan ne kai raatein Sahil ke saath bhi guzari. Toh aise mein bazaar mein charchaon ka bazaar bhi garam hai.” (Now the case will get interesting. When Saurabh's wife Muskan came to know that she was pregnant, her face turned pale, Muskan looked nervous. Till now, Sahil is not even aware of this news…because many such videos also went viral, after Saurabh's murder, in which Muskan was seen with Sahil. She was seen celebrating honeymoon and parties in Kasol. Muskan spent many nights with Sahil. So in such a situation, the gossip market is also hot.)
At one point, the reporter even wondered if Muskan would give birth to the child. “Kya Muskan iss bacche ko janam degi?” he asked.
After finding out the “truth” about Muskan’s pregnancy, the News18 India narrator wondered: “Lekin sawaal hai ki Muskan ke pet mein baccha kiska hai? Saurabh ka ya fir aaropi boyfriend Sahil ka?Kyunki hatya se kuch hi din pehle Saurabh London se lauta tha, aur hatya ke baad Sahil aur Muskan Shimla, Manali aur Kasol mein honeymoon mana rahe the. Yahi wajah hai ki pregnant hone ki khabar ke baad Muskan behad nervous hai. (But the question is whose child is in Muskan's womb? Saurabh’s or the accused boyfriend Sahil’s? Because Saurabh had returned from London a few days before the murder, and after the murder Sahil and Muskan were celebrating their honeymoon in Shimla, Manali and Kasol. This is the reason why Muskan is nervous following the news of her pregnancy.)”
Sharing updates on the murder case, News18 India published this segment on its YouTube channel with the title: “सौरभ की हत्यारी मुस्कान प्रेग्नेंट! लेकिन बच्चा किसका? | Breaking News (Saurabh’s murderer Muskan is pregnant, but who is the father?”
ABP News
For ABP, Muskan’s pregnancy test coming out positive was a “big” development in the Saurabh Rajput murder case. The ABP anchor told the audience that a DNA test could be conducted to find out if Saurabh or Sahil was the father of Muskan’s child.
In a video report, ABP’s anchor even asked the viewers to leave a comment about who they thought was the father of Muskan’s child: Saurabh or Sahil?. “Sawal hai ki uske (Muskan) ke pet mein pal raha woh baccha kiska hai? Saurabh ya Sahil? Aapko kya lagta hai? Niche diye gaye comment section mein apni rai zaroor rakhiye,” said the news anchor.
The video report was titled: “Muskan Rastogi Pregnant: किसके बच्चे की मां बनने वाली है, मुस्कान, क्या सच सामने आया?”
News Nation
At News Nation, the narrator asked the viewers if they thought whether Muskan being found pregnant was “good news” or not. “...Iske baad jab behrahmi aur haivaniyat ki misaal ban chuki uss mahila ko jail bheja jaaye aur medical report mein jab uss mahila ka pregnant hone ka patah chale toh kya aap use bhi good news kahenge?” (After this, when that woman, who has become an example of cruelty and barbarity, is sent to jail, and when it is revealed in the medical report that she is pregnant, will you call that good news too?)
News Nation, too, could not stop itself from asking the most important question in the murder case: “Muskan ke pet mein pal raha baccha kiska?”
Muskan being pregnant was “big news”for the channel which ran the ticker “Blue drum waali Muskan par badi khabar” on its screens.
According to the police, after allegedly stabbing Saurabh to death, Muskan and Sahil purportedly dismembered his body and shoved the remains into a blue plastic barrel and poured cement into it. Hence, the News Nation moniker: “Blue drum waali Muskan”.
Discussing Muskan’s pregnancy, irrespective of whether she killed her husband or not, on national television may not be in adherence with international norms on treatment of women prisoners.
The United Nations Rules for the “Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders” stresses on the need for safeguarding privacy, dignity and confidentiality of women inmates.
Social media flooded with memes, AI content
Social media is also rife with memes and visuals related to Saurabh’s murder. Several social media users have shared memes on the “blue drum” making light of the manner in which Saurabh’s body was allegedly disposed of. Some of these have gained millions of views.
So much is the social media’s obsession with the murder case that deepfake videos of those involved in the crime have started to inundate online platforms.
A case in Meerut was reportedly registered last month against an Instagram user for circulating a deepfake video of a police officer kissing Muskan Rastogi. The Instagram account in question also shared other deepfake videos of Muskan, one of them showing her in a swimsuit.
Several other viral animated videos show Muskan transforming into a monster. One such video had 6.5 million views on Instagram at the time of writing this report.
Various viral social media posts, with lakhs of views and thousands of likes, even claimed that Muskan killed her husband to “get his govt job under dependent quota and to settle with boyfriend.” However, almost all media reports identified Saurabh as a Merchant Navy officer who was in London before returning to India. No police official has told the media that Saurabh was a government employee.
Some media reports even claimed that in light of Saurabh’s murder, also referred to as the “blue drum murder”, the sale of the blue barrels – a common hardware item– have gone down in some cities. Some even claimed that shopkeepers in Meerut, the city where the crime took place, need customers to show their Aadhaar card to purchase a blue drum.
Newslaundry could not verify the veracity of the claims made in these reports.
Be it a case of a gruesome rape or a woman being murdered by her partner, sensationalising serious crimes is a sport mainstream Indian news channel have championed with a passion often at the cost of facts. Now it is the paternity of Muskan’s unborn child that has become a pressing issue for news channels as viewers are left to figure out how that is relevant to the crime in question.
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