Barrack 2B of Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh District Jail is a one-of-a-kind barrack. It’s where the Meerut jail authorities have kept some of their most high-profile female undertrials. It’s where women undertrials spend hours participating in mandated jail activities and have, over time, bonded together.
It’s also where Muskaan Rastogi, Ravita Kashyap, Damini Panwar, Anjali Singh and Komal Singh are now lodged after allegedly killing their husbands in pursuit of other relationships.
The five women are among the 30 lodged in Barrack 2B. Police say each case unfolded differently — from alleged dismemberment to snakebite. Beyond the coincidence of the allegations against them and the barrack they now occupy, the five women have no other known connection.
And yet, these women are bound together by circumstances — and incarceration.
“They now follow the prison’s daily routine, comply with jail regulations and participate in assigned activities,” one official says. “Over time, they have formed relationships with other inmates and have integrated into the barrack’s day-to-day life.”
Who are the women
Jail authorities say the five women were held in five different murder cases in the district. According to prison records, three have been lodged here since last year, while two others came this year.
Of these, the most high-profile inmate is 26-year-old Muskaan Rastogi, who has been in jail since March last year for allegedly killing her husband, Saurabh Kumar, and dumping his body in a blue cement drum. The case made national headlines last year.
Muskan Rastogi in police custody.
Rastogi is stated to have stabbed and dismembered Kumar — who worked in London and had come home on a break — with the help of 26-year-old Sahil Shukla, with whom she allegedly had a relationship.
According to investigators, Kumar returned to India on February 24 last year to celebrate the birthdays of Rastogi and their five-year-old daughter. On March 4, Rastogi allegedly served Kumar food mixed with sedatives, and after he fainted, she and Shukla allegedly stabbed him, dismembered the body and threw it into a cement tank.
Investigators claim the couple fled to Shimla the following day, where they were eventually arrested. A chargesheet has been filed in the case, which is awaiting trial.
On November 24, Rastogi had a baby girl in jail.
On April 17, 27-year-old Ravita Kashyap was brought in for the murder of her husband, Amit Kashyap, whose body was found in their bed in Akbarpur Sadakat village on April 13 that same year.
Ravita is accused of killing her husband of eight years and making it look like a snakebite, with the family even finding a snake near the body. The couple have three children.
The investigation, however, allegedly found that Amit was strangled, with police allegedly concluding that Ravita murdered him with help from her alleged 26-year-old partner Amardeep and then staged the scene.
The third inmate in Barrack 2B is 26-year-old Anjali Kumari, who has been lodged there since November 2025.
According to police, Anjali and her alleged partner Ajay lured her husband Rahul to a remote location in Meerut’s Agwanpur village on November 1 and fatally shot him. A chargesheet has been filed in the case, and the couple are awaiting trial.
The fourth inmate in Barrack 2B is 35-year-old Komal Singh, one of the oldest inmates of the five. In jail since April, Komal was arrested for the murder of her husband of 14 years, Nain Singh, a Border Security Force (BSF) constable posted in Guwahati who was shot dead at his home in Meerut’s Dhanpur village. Nain, who was on leave for a few days, was asleep when he was killed.
Although his family had named three neighbours as suspects, investigators allegedly concluded that Komal and her alleged partner Gulshan had hired hitmen for the job. That led to the arrest of five people — Komal, Gulshan and three others. A chargesheet has been filed in this case too.
The newest inmate in Barrack 2B is 30-year-old Damini Panwar, arrested this month over the death of her husband, Atul Panwar, a private school owner from Hastinapur.
Investigators say that Damini and Atul had married for love in 2019 and had a six-year-old son together. But on July 17, Damini allegedly mixed sleeping pills into Atul’s milk and had her 35-year-old partner, Tushar, with whom she is stated to have been in a relationship, bring snake handlers carrying a snake. The serpent, allegedly left on the bed of the unconscious Atul, bit and killed him.
The investigation in this case is still ongoing.
Damini Panwar in police custody
Life in jail
Barrack 2B houses women facing a range of criminal charges — from theft to murder. Prison officials said there was no special reason for housing the women together.
“The jail has two barracks designated for female inmates — 2A and 2B,” one guard says. “The women were accommodated together because they had not created any disciplinary or security concerns, and we found that they could be kept together.”
Life inside Barrack 2B is strictly regimented. The women, except for Rastogi, who has a young child to care for, spend most of their days working in the prison library or participating in stitching and embroidery programmes run by jail staff.
“Apart from Damini, who was lodged here only this month, the others have adjusted to life behind bars,” one jail guard says. “None of the women has been involved in disciplinary violations or other incidents.”
“Of the five women, only Muskaan is living with her child inside the prison. Under prison rules, incarcerated mothers are allowed to keep their children with them until they reach the age of six. After that, the child must either be placed in the care of a relative or guardian, or be produced before the Child Welfare Committee in accordance with prison rules,” Meerut District Jail Superintendent Viresh Raj Sharma told The Indian Express.
Visits and calls from family are strictly regulated. Jail privileges include using the in-house telephone to speak to their families for five minutes twice a week.
But not all inmates can do so. “While three of the five women continue to receive visitors, Damini and Muskaan have not been visited by anyone since they were lodged in the jail,” one prison guard says.
But even in the bleakness of prison life, there are moments of joy: Rastogi’s baby girl. “She’s one of the few children living inside the jail who has become a source of warmth for the other women in the barrack,” the prison guard says.
The five women are among the 30 lodged in Barrack 2B of Meerut’s Chaudhary Charan Singh District Jail. (Express Photo) 
Muskan Rastogi in police custody.
Damini Panwar in police custody
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