The Geeta and Sanjay Chopra Murders

The disappearance

On the evening of August 26, 1978, siblings Geeta and Sanjay Chopra left home in New Delhi to take part in a youth program at All India Radio. They never arrived. Their disappearance triggered an intensive search, and their bodies were later found outside the city.

Investigators arrested Kuljeet Singh, known as Ranga, and Jasbir Singh, known as Billa. The prosecution alleged that the pair had abducted the teenagers while pursuing a plan to obtain money and had later killed them. The criminal case also included a sexual-offence charge involving Geeta.

Trial and convictions

The Additional Sessions Judge in Delhi convicted both defendants of murder committed with common intention and of multiple kidnapping-related offences. The case also resulted in a conviction under the sexual-offence provision then in force. Both men were sentenced to death for the murders and received additional prison terms on the other counts.

On November 16, 1979, the Delhi High Court confirmed the convictions and death sentences. Ranga and Billa then sought review in the Supreme Court of India.

Supreme Court review

The Supreme Court dismissed their special-leave challenges in December 1980. In a later constitutional petition decided on April 21, 1981, the Court again declined to disturb the result. The judgment records that both men had been convicted in connection with the murders of Geeta and Sanjay and that the High Court had confirmed the death sentences.

Further litigation focused on mercy powers and the timing of execution rather than reopening the factual findings of guilt. On January 20, 1982, the Supreme Court rejected another challenge and vacated the stay of execution.

Execution and final status

Ranga and Billa were executed at Tihar Jail on January 31, 1982, after their judicial challenges and mercy efforts failed. Their executions did not create the convictions; they followed convictions already sustained through the appellate process.

The case is classified as Solved / Adjudicated. The identities of the convicted perpetrators, the victims, the core charges and the final appellate outcome are all established in the judicial record.

Timeline

What remains important about the record

The case became one of the most widely remembered criminal prosecutions of its era, but later cultural retellings often add sensational detail. This page relies on the court record for the convictions and procedural history and uses contemporary reporting only for background and the execution date.