HT This Day: Dec 9, 1980 -- Billa, Ranga to hang | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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HT This Day: Dec 9, 1980 -- Billa, Ranga to hang

By, New Delhi
Dec 07, 2022 07:35 PM IST

Chief Justice Y. V. Chandrachud, Mr Justices Chinnappa Reddy and Bahrul Islam of the Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal of Billa and Ranga against their death sentence and conviction for the murder of the teenaged Chopra children.

Chief Justice Y. V. Chandrachud, Mr Justices Chinnappa Reddy and Bahrul Islam of the Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal of Billa and Ranga against their death sentence and conviction for the murder of the teenaged Chopra children.

HT This Day: Dec 9, 1980 -- Billa, Ranga to hang
HT This Day: Dec 9, 1980 -- Billa, Ranga to hang

On Nov. 16, 1979, Mr Justice V. D. Misra and Mr Justice F. S. Gill of Delhi High Court in a 128-page judgment had confirmed the death sentence awarded by the Sessions Court, Delhi, to Billa and Ranga for murdering Sanjay and Geeta Chopra on the desolate Upper Ridge area in Delhi in August 1978. The two judges had stated that with the elimination of these two convicts, society would be much better off and its safety no longer in danger.

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Mr R. K Garg, appearing for Billa, pointed out that one could not deny the heinousness of the crime but the court with cold objectivity should see whether there had been a frame up by the police in view of the public storm that the crime raised. The recovery of the car in which the two children were enticed on the promise of giving them a lift was important. But also the fingerprints in the car in which the two children had struggled to free themselves were also important.

Mr Garg also asked why did the police await the arrest of the ac- cused before the fingerprint report was submitted and why did they not immediately verify the prints from Bombay where they were readily available. Without the finger- print report, the police gave out to the newspapers that Billa and Ranga had committed the crime. They told the Press of rape on a young and hapless girl. But the police sur- geon’s report stated that no rape had taken place and there had been no sexual intercourse.

Both the trial and the High Court he said, had ignored this medical report. Justice required and the public had a right to know how the police charged Billa and Ranga with rape when their own doctor’s report denied such a happening.

Pleading that the police had virtually conducted a newspaper trial by associating the two convicts with abominable facts Mr Garg concluded that the court should re-examine the whole issue in the light of police losing sensitivity for the rights of accused persons.

Mr V. J. Francis tried to show that Ranga’s sentence should bo reduced to one of life imprison- ment as at various points of time he had tried to persuade Billa to let the children go. Counsel for Ranga contended that the confessions made by the two convicts were illegal and could not form the basis of the conviction.

However, the Chief Justice rejected all these arguments and declared that the High Court judgement was a well reasoned one. When Mr Garg stated that our convictions about sentencing would be on trial in this case, the Chief Justice countered that this would be really not so as professional killers were involved. There may have been no rape as the medical record shows but there could be no doubt that the girl had been treated by the two convicts very badly.

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