Tue Jan 07 12:46:54 UTC 2025: ## Delhi’s First Heinous Crime: The Rape and Murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra
**NEW DELHI** – A chilling tale from 1978 is resurfacing with the upcoming release of a Netflix series based on the book “Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer.” The series revisits the brutal rape and murder of two Navy children, Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, a case that shocked Delhi and exposed the city’s deteriorating law and order situation.
On August 26, 1978, 17-year-old Sanjay and 15-year-old Geeta, children of Indian Navy Captain MM Chopra, were headed to All India Radio for a youth program. After receiving a ride part of the way, they disappeared near Gole Dak Khana. Three days later, their bodies were discovered, revealing Geeta had been raped and both were murdered.
The investigation that followed was plagued by incompetence. However, key eyewitness accounts described a lime-coloured Fiat, bearing license plate MRK 930, speeding away from the scene with the screaming girl inside. These testimonies, along with the discovery of blood-stained clothing, ultimately led to the arrest of Kuljeet Singh (“Ranga Khush”) and Jasbir Singh (“Bengali” or “Billa”) two weeks later. They were apprehended on the Kalka Mail by alert military personnel who recognized Billa from a newspaper photo.
The Delhi High Court sentenced both to death, citing the “fiendish sadistic pleasure” shown in the crime. The Supreme Court upheld the sentence. Their executions on January 31, 1982, took place in Tihar Jail’s “phansi kothi” (hanging room), a chilling account of which is detailed in Sunil Gupta’s memoir. Gupta, the jailer at the time, describes the contrasting personalities of the condemned men, with Ranga remaining surprisingly cheerful even on death row while Billa persistently claimed innocence.
The case had far-reaching political consequences. The Janata Party government, criticized for its handling of the crime, subsequently lost the next election. The Chopra murder became a symbol of Delhi’s escalating crime rates, prompting public outrage and highlighting the failures of the police and justice system in the 1970s. The upcoming Netflix series promises to bring this harrowing chapter of Delhi’s history back into the spotlight.
First Piper 