The crime and the aftermath: How Raakh and Black Warrant explore different dimensions of the Billa-Ranga case

Prime Video’s latest web series, Raakh, has once again put the infamous Billa- Ranga case into the spotlight. The abduction and murder of siblings Geeta and Sanjay Chopra by petty thieves Billa and Ranga shook the entire nation and changed Delhi forever. The incident, which took place in 1978, and the subsequent trial had the entire country hooked to proceedings and remains one of the most talked-about criminal cases in India.

Decades passed, and the details of the incident were retold and narrated through generations, more as a tale of caution about Delhi’s perpetual problem of safety. In the recent years, two filmmakers- Prosit Roy and Vikramaditya Motwane brought a case on OTT. Both Raakh and Black Warrant tackle the most chilling crime in the history of Delhi, and both web series give two different perspectives on the same case.

Raakh: Anatomy of the crime

While Raakh narrates the case, delving into the minds of the two notorious criminals and how a city, which till then was mostly known to be safe, went through a tectonic shift. It also talks about a family grappling with an unprecedented tragedy and a police officer wanting to prove his worth by cracking the case. Meanwhile, Black Warrants narrates what happens after the verdict is declared and the two are given a death sentence. The series, directed by Motwane, is based on former Tihar Jailor SP Gupta’s book, which attempts to flip the narrative, making the viewer question briefly whether Billa and Ranga were actually the culprits or framed for someone else’s deeds.

Writers of Raakh- Anusha Nandakumar and Sandeep Saket- took inspiration from the original story to create fictitious situations and characters. The series gets into the anatomy of the crime. The atmospheric drama begins with an outside view of the incident and then moves inwards to delve deeper into the minds of those involved in the crime. Babu, at one point, is described as ‘daitya’ (demon) for committing a heinous crime; his aide Rajjo is shown as a man who has committed a petty crime and is always a reluctant accomplice to Babu’s crime.

The two thieves and then murderers, later, have been committing a spate of crimes before they offer a lift to the two kids in an attempt to kidnap them and extort money from the parents. The series goes back in time to establish Babu as a problematic man who spares no one, family, friends, girlfriend and even strangers. Rajjo’s background, on the other hand, is slightly sketchy, but it is revealed that he has been driven to commit petty crimes due to poverty.

You feel sympathy for Rajjo and sheer hatred for Babu by the end of Raakh.

A substantial portion of Raakh's narrative weight is also devoted to the parents' absolute devastation (played by Aamir Bashir and Sonali Bendre). It captures how a split-second, random hitchhiking decision ruptured a family forever. While the father grapples to find answers to what happened to his kids, the mother shuts down emotionally, desperately wanting to continue with her life, perhaps in the hope of getting back her children.

Raakh, by the end of it, disturbs you, makes you emotional, makes you think of the what-ifs, and makes you root for Sub Inspector Jayprakash (Ali Fazal), who goes beyond his capacity to crack the case.

Black Warrant: Victims of the system and the legal scepticism

Created by Vikramaditya Motwane and Satyanshu Singh, Black Warrant shifts the entire landscape into the claustrophobic corridors of Tihar Jail. Based on the memoirs of jailer Sunil Gupta, it treats the case not as a current, unfolding horror, but concentrates on the aftermath of the verdict.

The series is from the perspective of rookie jailor Sunil Gupta (Zahaan Kapoor), who has to oversee the execution of Ranga and Billa and prove his worth to sceptical seniors. For him, Ranga and Billa are not just headlines or monsters fleeing a crime scene—they are heavily guarded inmates waiting for the gallows. It explores the unsettling domesticity of death row. As Gupta makes his way to meet Ranga and Billa (always shown in shadows), he is constantly told by the two that they did not commit the crime, but the other one did. Even star reporter Pratibha Sen (Rajashri Deshpande) plants a seed of doubt in Gupta’s mind on whether the actual culprits are being punished for the crime or not.

In Black Warrant, the crime is shown as a catalyst for change in Tihar Jail and its internal politics.

Raakh and Black Warrant: The different sides of the same story

The crime itself fundamentally stripped Delhi of its post-independence innocence, turning a relatively safe city into one gripped by a collective paranoia that continues to dominate the psyche. It also changed the DNA of Tihar Jail, which became famous for housing the most hardened criminals and overseeing some very controversial executions.

The creative choice of how to frame this tragedy splits significantly between the two shows. They offer two radically different vantage points—one focusing on the anatomy of the crime, the immediate trauma, and the systemic procedural, while the other looks at the post-verdict aftermath through the unique lens of institutional captivity.

What’s common between Raakh and Black Warrant is that the two shows define an era which is now unthinkable. A time when Delhi was a safe city where children were allowed to travel alone in the evenings. It wasn’t unthinkable to ask for lifts from strangers. A time when social media activism was missing, and there was no rush to get breaking news out first. Journalists sought permission before interviewing criminals and did not shove a mic in their faces while they were being moved to courts. Raakh functions as an elegy for a city's lost safety and a family’s stolen future, while Black Warrant serves as a cynical, sharp dissection of how the state apparatus responds when its capital city is shaken to its core.