India, March 19 -- The brutal murder of a Merchant Navy officer in Meerut, whose body was chopped up and dumped in a drum, was planned by his wife, who convinced her boyfriend that his dead mother was speaking to him - through Snapchat - from the grave, media reports quoting the police said on Wednesday.

Merchant Navy officer Saurabh Rajput was killed by his wife, Muskaan Rastogi, and Sahil Shukla, with whom she was having an extramarital affair, on March 4.

The wife had been planning her husband's murder since November, officials told the media.

She had purchased two knives in the pretext of cutting chicken days before her husband's return.

Rajput's body was chopped into 15 pieces and dumped in a drum, which was sealed with cement. ...