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The Crime Scene :" INTENSE"2

The Pick up...............

Geeta Chopra was a 16½-year-old 2nd year student in the Jesus and Mary College, New Delhi. Her brother, Sanjay, was 14-year-old student in the 10th standard of the Modern School. Their father, Madan Mohan Chopra, was a captain in the Indian Navy. They lived in the Officer's Enclave in Dhaula Kuan.

On Saturday 26 August 1978, Geeta and Sanjay were supposed to participate in a radio programme called the Yuva Vani on All India Radio. They were to reach the All India Radio office on the Sansad Marg by 7 pm. Their father was supposed to pick them up outside the All India Radio after programme at 9 pm.

The siblings left their house at 6:15 pm. A man, Kula Nand saw them at the roundabout at Dhaula Kuan. A man named M. S. Nanda gave the children a lift from Dhaula Kuan to Gole Dak Khana as it was drizzling

At 6:30 pm, Bhagwan Dass had noticed a mustard colour Fiat car, while traveling from Gurudwara Bangla Sahib towards North Avenue, near the yoga ashram at Gole Dak Khana. He heard noises coming from the car, so he stopped his scooter and approached the vehicle. He saw a girl pulling the hair of the driver and a boy fighting the passenger by the driver. Dass could not stop the car and it sped away towards Willingdon Hospital. Several other people had tried to stop the car. One man named Babu Lal, dropped his bicycle and tried to grab the door handle of the car, but failed. Dass reported this to the police. At 6:45 pm, he called the police control room and told them the license number of the car.  Dass also reported that the girl was screaming for help.

At 8 pm, their parents tuned in to the radio to listen to their children on the programme, but another girl had been given the slot. The parents assumed that they had tuned in to the wrong station or that the programme had been cancelled. Their father took his scooter from home at 8:45 pm to reach the radio office. He did not find his children at the appointed place. He was told at the office that the children did not arrive. The father called home to ask if the children had reached home; their mother replied in the negative. Their father returned home and called his relatives and friends to ask if the children were with them.

At 10:15 pm, the father called the police and gave them the descriptions of the children. The father searched places where the children might have possibly gone to, including the Willingdon Hospital and returned home at 11:30 pm.

The bodies were discovered by a cowherd, Dhani Ram, grazing his cows in Delhi Ridge on 28 August 1978, at 6 pm. The cowherd reported the bodies to a patrolling constable, Rohtas Singh, at 12:00 am. Sub-inspector Hari Chand was sent to the site. The parents were called to the site to identify the bodies. They identified them as their children

The autopsy was conducted by the police surgeon, Bharat Singh, on 29 August. He found the bodies to be in an advanced stage of decomposition. He could not establish sexual assault of the girl due to the decomposition. He found multiple stab wounds and a broken jaw on the girl. He confirmed multiple stab wounds on the boy.

The story got much media attention in India. Then-Prime Minister Morarji Desai took personal interest in the case. The Janata Party, which was in power in 1978 Delhi, was criticised for their handling for the case. They lost the subsequent election.

Stay Tuned for the end......................................................

The Sentence and end but not the END!!!............................

The kidnappers were arrested on a train a few weeks later on 8 September 1978. On that day, the two kidnappers boarded the Kalka Mail when it had slowed near the Yamuna river bridge near Agra. The compartment they entered was reserved for military personnel, so they were asked to show their identity cards. They started a scuffle with the army-men and were suppressed. Lance Naik A. V. Shetty recognised them from a newspaper picture. On 9 September 1978, they were handed over to Inspector V. P. Gupta, at the New Delhi railway station. They were held in separate non-adjoining cells.

On searching their bags, the police found a sword. Their clothes were found to have bloodstains. The doctor examining them found bruises on their arms and bodies, some of which were recent from a scuffle. The doctor found the sutures on Billa's head and estimated it to be 15 days old. A wound on Ranga's forearm was found to be 15 days old. Fingerprints, saliva, blood and hair samples were taken on 12 September. On 13 September, on Billa's directions, they were driven separately to Agra, where the police recovered a sword from a rented room in Sita Nagar where they were staying.

The hair found in the car and on the body of the boy matched that of Ranga. His fingerprints were found in the car. The bloodstains on his shirt belonged to blood group AB, which was a match with the siblings. Billa's hair was found on the body of the girl, and blood matching his blood group A was found in the car. Blood of group AB was found on his clothes. The signature at the Willingdon Hospital matched that of Billa. The skiagrams of the skulls matched

On 22 September, Ranga made a voluntary confession which was recorded by a metropolitan magistrate, but the statement was later retracted on 20 November. On 19 October, Billa gave a similar confession, but retracted it on 27 October. The confessions were later held to be independent as they had been kept in non-adjoining cells.

Both men pleaded not guilty.

Billa claimed that he was in Bombay from 25 August to 1 September. He said he had acquired the head injury while trying to steal a car in Agripada, Bombay. Billa claimed he was forced to make a false confession. He said he was wanted by the Bombay police for false cases, so he had fled to Delhi with Ranga. They had come to Delhi on 15 August. On 18 August, they went to Panipat where Ranga's sister lived. On 25 August, both left for Bombay. On the 28th, he got his head wound. On 31 August, he left for Delhi, where he was informed by Ranga that they were wanted for the murders. They then tried to hide out in Delhi. They were trying to escape to Madras via Delhi when they were caught by the army men. He claimed he had been tortured by the police to make the confession. Ranga said that the sword was planted on him and that when his clothes were taken from him, they had no bloodstains. They also produced witnesses to establish Billa's alibi.

It was established by the court that the duo had come to Delhi to escape the Bombay police. They arrived in Delhi on 16 August and lived in various places under false names. They had two ceremonial kirpans, one small and a large, and had gotten them sharpened elsewhere. Billa was proficient in stealing cars and had gotten fake number plates painted. He stole a Fiat from outside the Ashoka Hotel. They rented a room in Majlis Park, paid for two months in advance. They picked up the children sometime between 6:30 and 6:40 pm on 26 August. The boy received a wound on his shoulder. At 7:30 pm, the car was parked near the Buddha Jayanti Park. Ranga bought two ice creams and three Campa Colas. The boy's autopsy established that he had eaten milk product before death. At 9:30 pm, the teenagers were murdered in the woods near the Upper Ridge Road, Delhi. The girl's body was found with her undergarments missing. On 30 August, Ranga abandoned the car in Majlis Park, a few streets away from where they were living. On 31 August, after the police found the car, the duo left despite paying rent for two months.

Kuljeet Singh (alias Ranga Kush) and Jasbir Singh (alias Billa) were convicted and sentenced to death under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 34 (common intention), by an additional sessions judge in Delhi. They were also convicted for crimes under Section 363 (kidnapping), 365 (kidnapping with unlawful confinement), 366 (kidnapping a woman with intention of sexual intercourse) and 367 (kidnapping with intention to cause hurt), read with Section 34.

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