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There was Delhi in 1978. Slower. Quieter. You could send your teens to walk to a local event and no one turned a hair. Then came August 26. All at once, a generation of parents began to keep an eye on their children.
The Raakh television series, that was just released on the Prime Video, has brought everyone back to the gruesome orbit of Kuljeet Singh and Jasbir Singh. These are the names you are likely to remember if you know them at all as they terrorized a city: Ranga and Billa. The show takes a very dark procedural turn, but the reality of the history is much darker. Nowadays, Ali Fazal and Sonali Bendre are in the news, but we should pay attention to the actual teenagers who did not make it home. Geeta and Sanjay Chopra were the parents.
The Rainy Evening That Broke a City
It began like any other Saturday. Geeta was sixteen. 2nd year student of Commerce in Jesus and Mary college. Her brother Sanjay was studying in Modern School and was 14 years old. They belonged to the family of Captain Madan Mohan Chopra, a senior officer in Indian Navy at Dhaula Kuan.
That night they were going somewhere. Both were to be interviewed on a radio programme, Yuv Vani, at the All India Radio station at Parliament Street. It was to be broadcast at 8 PM. They left home around 6:15 PM. The weather was hell. The city was being battered by heavy rain, causing public transport to be delayed.
They took a lift from a family acquaintance, covering only half the distance and were dropped near Gole Dak Khana. A fair distance still to the studio. They needed another ride. But what they didn’t know was that a stolen mustard-colored Fiat was driving the streets. There Ranga and Billa were. Two drifters who have committed petty crime and have an incredible capacity to be very violent.
The teens broke into the house. Most likely they were trying to avoid the rain.
The Silence on the Radio Frequency
They returned to the officers’ enclave and switched on their radio where the captain Chopra and wife Roma were. This was a proud parent moment. They waited to hear Geeta’s voice. It was now eight o’clock. Another voice was heard over the broadcast. A total stranger. They tried different frequencies, moving the dials around and thought that they had simply screwed up the tuning. Nothing.
Panic starts as a slow burn. Captain Chopra picked up his scooter and rapidly went to the AIR studio with a rain-drenched face. The reception desk informed him with the worst news. He didn’t have any children. He made a house visit at Willingdon Hospital. He visited Parliament Street Police Station. He was calling the Police Control Room by 10:15 PM.
In the darkness, a nightmare was taking place. But the kidnappers had been able to deduce that the children of a naval officer were their victims. They took a wrong turn for certain, an ignorant turn. They thought a soldier would not possess the kind of money that they wanted. The objective was not extortion anymore, but just raw, unvarnished savagery.
The forensics information is difficult to read. Sanjay fought back. The child was an experienced boxer and in the post-mortem, it was revealed that he had fought back strongly. He was stabbed 25 times, primarily in the arms, and was stabbed defensively. Prior to her death, Geeta suffered terrible abuse. The violence wasn’t cold. It was wild and crazy.
The Discovery and The Ridge.
Two days went by. The police and the Navy have been frantically searching for two days. One evening on August 28th a owner of cattle named Dhani Ram was walking his stock through a thick thornous scrub in the Central Ridge. He found them.
The discovery blew the lid off the city. It would no longer be just a neighborhood crime story. This was a national emergency. Prime Minister Morarji Desai was closely following the news. The Janata Party, which was government at the Centre, was left in the grip of the popular rage over the initial police delays. Citizens were terrified. The anxious locals gave the road curving through the Ridge this rather unusual nickname, Billa-Ranga Road, for a short time. Children who lived in that time were subjected to strict curfews of 9 PM. There was significant limitation of outdoor cycling.
The police knew of one good lead. A fingerprint. Billa had been injured during the fight with Sanjay and have even taken her to a local hospital where she was stitched up. He left his mark. He left his thumb impression. The forensic net began to close in.
A Train Ride to Nowhere
The manhunt went on for almost 14 days. Ranga and Billa left the city. They played, lived in cheap rented rooms and finally came to Agra before attempting to retrace their steps.
They made a stupid mistake on September 8. They took the Kalka Mail train and got into the train, intending to get back to Delhi, but ended up in a compartment where only military personnel were allowed. Lance Naik Gurtej Singh and AV Shetty were with duty. Both of the fugitives appeared to be nervous. They were unable to provide proper identification. One of them actually went so far as to offer a blank ID and requested his partner to fill it in on the spot.
It was pure luck. Gurtej Singh happened to be carrying a Hindi newspaper. In his face on the front page was a police sketch and a picture of the nation’s most wanted men. The soldiers didn’t hesitate. They succeeded in defeating the assassins. The train arrived in the Delhi station by 3:30 AM and by that time Ranga and Billa were dragged out and handed over to the authorities. They had a kirpan and a live cartridge in their bags.
The Slow Grind of the Law
The trial was of a circus. Daily dispatches were sent from the courtroom to all the newspapers throughout the country. Billa is alleged to have tried to fabricate an alibi that he was involved in a car theft case in Bombay during the time of the murders. He brought in bogus witnesses. He said that he was tortured by police into confessing. Ranga went to great lengths.
The physical evidence could not be ignored. The stolen Fiat’s hair was a match for Ranga’s. Both men’s clothes had blood stains that matched the blood type of the siblings. The hospital skiagrams coincided with Billa’s recent head injuries.
