Archive · 8 Aug 2026
Fallen City Review Recalls Delhi's Dark 1978 Murder Era
This is a review of a grown-up book called Fallen City.
The book tells a sad and true story from a long time ago, in 1978, in a big city called Delhi in India.
Two children, a brother and a sister named Sanjay and Geeta Chopra, went out one evening and never came home.
A few days later, people found out that very bad things had happened to them, and the whole country felt sad and angry.
The police worked hard and caught two bad people named Billa and Ranga.
The bad men were punished for what they did, and the book tells all about it.
But the book is about more than just the crime.
It also talks about hard times Delhi went through, like riots, wars, and a time when people lost their freedoms.
The writer used old reports, court papers, and interviews to put the story together.
Reading it helps people understand that a city, like people, can have both happy and very sad moments.
Fallen City: The Murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra and Delhi's Descent From Grace, by Sudeep Chakravarti, is published by Aleph (246 pp., Rs 499).
Siblings Sanjay and Geeta Chopra left home on August 26, 1978, and their mutilated bodies were found four days later in a forested area on Delhi's western outskirts.
Culprits Billa and Ranga were caught, convicted, and hanged at Tihar Jail, remaining impenitent despite repeated appeals to have their sentences commuted.
The book chronicles the case against a backdrop of Partition memories, Naxal violence in Calcutta, the Bangladesh war, and Indira Gandhi's Emergency.
The book is possibly re-released to coincide with the new OTT series Raakh, which covers a similar topic.
- Who
- Sudeep Chakravarti, author of Fallen City, which recounts the murder of siblings Sanjay and Geeta Chopra by Billa and Ranga.
- What
- A book review of Fallen City: The Murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra and Delhi's Descent From Grace, a chronicle of the 1978 Chopra murder case and Delhi's social and political history.
- When
- The siblings disappeared on August 26, 1978, with bodies found four days later; the book may be re-released now alongside the OTT series Raakh.
- Where
- Delhi, India — the siblings left their home and their bodies were found in a forested area on the city's western outskirts; Billa and Ranga were hanged at Tihar Jail.
- Why
- To chronicle how the chilling 1978 crime and the era's upheavals — Partition horrors, Naxal violence, the Bangladesh war, and the Emergency — shaped and shook Delhi.
Death Penalty Opponents
Death Penalty Proponents
Capital punishment for Billa and Ranga
Death Penalty Opponents
The defence opposed the death sentence, filing repeated appeals to have it commuted to a life term and a petition for the President's pardon, which was eventually dismissed.
Death Penalty Proponents
The public was outraged and demanded answers; the culprits were convicted in a fast-track court and executed despite their stubborn impenitence, which the country broadly supported.
- Book
- Fallen City: The Murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra and Delhi's Descent From Grace
- Author
- Sudeep Chakravarti
- Publisher
- Aleph
- Pages
- 246
- Price
- Rs 499
- Victims
- Siblings Sanjay and Geeta Chopra
- Crime date
- Left home August 26, 1978; bodies found four days later
- Executed killers
- Billa and Ranga, hanged at Tihar Jail