Delhi: To some extent, crime and the methods of investigation have remained unchanged in the country for over 45 years. The book Fallen City, written by Sudeep Chakravarti and published by Aleph Book Company, discusses a rape and murder case committed by criminals Ranga and Billa in 1978 in the National Capital, Delhi.
The author spoke to ETV Bharat's Saurabh Shukla about this case and compared it to a recent rape-murder case in Kolkata. He noted that nothing has changed; the police still do not take cases seriously until there is national outrage.
Q: If we take the Fallen City, how do you see the difference between investigations back then and now, especially if we compare Ranga, Billa's crime with cases like Nirbhaya or the recent RG Kar now?
A: While police now have better technology at their disposal, and more modern tools and training, it appears that attitudes have not changed over the decades. Police forces across India are overburdened. So-called VIPs and VVIPs continue to divert police deployment for their own protection when the police should largely be for the safety and security of all citizens. The killings of Geeta and Sanjay, the Chopra children by Billa and Ranga, and later, the Nirbhaya case and now the RG Kar Hospital case show up inefficiencies of the policing system, political interference for better optics, and how nothing, the investigation or justice, moves quickly until public outrage forces the pace.
Q: Who were Ranga and Billa? Please tell me about their involvement in the case and how the police eventually caught them?
A: Billa and Ranga were two petty criminals who met in Bombay, and later decided to travel to Delhi for better opportunities when they found the police net closing in on them in Bombay. They were accused of killing Geeta and Sanjay Chopra and later hanged for the murders. The police did not catch them. They entered a railway carriage filled with soldiers when the diverted Kalka Mail had slowed down near the Yamuna Bridge in Agra. The soldiers detained them, and handed them over to the police upon reaching Delhi Junction (Old Delhi Station).
Q: How did both of them react to their arrest?
A: Billa and Ranga never denied their role in the kidnapping of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra. But they blamed each other for the killings and the rape of Geeta.
Q: How much time did it take to reach the conclusion or judgment in these cases? Specifically, considering the 1978 case, which you’ve thoroughly researched, how much time did it take for the media to report on this case?
A: Investigations vary in the time it takes from beginning to conclusion. Justice can only come after that. In the case against Billa and Ranga, they received death sentences within a year, but there were several appeals to commute death sentences to life sentences. This took the case from their arrest in September 1978 to their execution in January 1982 to a three-and-a-half-year timeline. It was very quick, going by the standard of the day.
Q: How do you compare both the cases in terms of media coverage? Did the news first appear in its original form, or were there speculations, denials, and incomplete information before the full truth came out?
A: Because there was a time lag between the killings of the Chopra children on 26 August 1978 and the arrest of their suspected killers on 9 September 1978, the interim was full of speculation and incomplete information. The police fed the media scraps of information, the media passed on to their readership whatever they could dig up. The full truth took several months to come out, as I detail in my book, Fallen City.
Q: What was the motive behind their kidnapping and then murder?
A: The motive behind the killings was clear: a kidnapping for money, which seemed to have gone horribly wrong when Billa and Ranga realised they were not wealthy, but the children of a naval captain. I believe the violence escalated because Geeta and Sanjay Chopra kept protesting, kept fighting back. This seemed to have convinced Billa and Ranga to get rid of them. The children were literally hacked to death with a kirpan and sword.
Q: How did the public react to this brutal killing at that time?
A: Delhi came to a standstill. Several thousand students from schools and colleges marched to the Boat Club to demand justice and public security. Public outrage forced Parliament to discuss the crime and push for results. The Investigation remained front-page news for several weeks. Public outrage also ensured that the judicial process was relatively quick, and the highest law officers of the land, lawyers and judges, argued the case and sat in judgement of the case. There was also a great sense of fear in Delhi at the time. People stopped going to parks for a while. They stopped taking lifts. Billa-Ranga became a symbol of great evil.
Q: Since their father was a serving defence officer, the government and other officials were actively pursuing the case. What do you think caused the delay in the investigation? Were the criminals significantly ahead of the police?
A: The case was not actively pursued only because Geeta and Sanjay’s father was a defence officer, but also because of the nature of the crime and the public outrage. The delay between crime and arrest was ten days. The first reason the criminals stayed ahead of the police was that crucial information was not conveyed in time by one police control room to another even as bystanders complained to the police about two young people being taken against their will in a car. The children had shouted for help. Then, it took nearly three more days for the bodies to be discovered. That gave Billa and Ranga a head start.
Q: How did this case become an opportunity for other political parties to criticize the government?
A: Typically, political parties look to gain mileage in the vulnerability and mistakes of other political parties. This instance was no different.
