Murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra

The Geeta and Sanjay Chopra kidnapping case, also known as the Ranga-Billa case, was a kidnapping and murder that took place in New Delhi in 1978. Geeta Chopra, a 16½-year-old college student, and her 14-year-old brother Sanjay were the children of Madan Mohan Chopra, a captain in the Indian Navy, and lived in the Officer's Enclave at Dhaula Kuan. The siblings were abducted by two men, Kuljeet Singh (alias Ranga) and Jasbir Singh (alias Billa). Although the children were taken for ransom, the case record states they were killed after the abductors learned their father was a naval officer and assumed the family was not wealthy.

On the evening of 26 August 1978, Geeta and Sanjay left home to take part in a radio programme on All India Radio. Several bystanders later reported seeing a struggle inside a mustard-coloured Fiat car and tried to stop the vehicle, noting its licence number for the police. The response was delayed partly by questions over jurisdiction. When the children did not return, their father searched for them and contacted the police. Their bodies were discovered by a cowherd in the Delhi Ridge area on 28 August 1978 and were identified by their parents. An autopsy on 29 August found multiple stab wounds on both children; decomposition prevented the surgeon from establishing whether the girl had been sexually assaulted.

Investigators recovered the stolen car, which had been fitted with false number plates, and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory obtained fingerprints, hair samples and bloodstains from it. The case drew national attention, and then–Prime Minister Morarji Desai took a personal interest in it. The two suspects were arrested on 8 September 1978 aboard a train after a soldier recognised them from a newspaper photograph.

Both men were charged and pleaded not guilty, each offering an alibi. Each made a confession before a magistrate that he later retracted; because the two were held in non-adjoining cells, the confessions were treated as independent. Forensic evidence linked both men to the crime through matching hair, fingerprints and blood groups, and hospital records connected one of them to treatment for a head injury on the night of the abduction. An additional sessions judge convicted Kuljeet Singh and Jasbir Singh of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 34, together with kidnapping offences, and sentenced both to death.

The Delhi High Court upheld the convictions on 16 November 1979, and the Supreme Court of India affirmed the death sentences on 21 April 1981; a clemency petition to the President was rejected. In a decision regarded as a landmark for press access, the Supreme Court ruled in November 1981 that journalists could interview the condemned men. Both were hanged at Tihar Jail on 31 January 1982. The Kirti Chakra was awarded to Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, and the Indian Council for Child Welfare established the Geeta Chopra Award and Sanjay Chopra Award to recognise bravery in children.