Purulia entered the news in December 1995, when a Latvian aircraft dropped a consignment of arms in its vicinity. Several days later, when the plane re-entered Indian airspace, it was intercepted by a Mig21 of the Indian Air Force, and its crew were captured. It was believed that the arms were intended for the Hindu cult Anand Marg ("Happy Path"), but proof of this could not be established. The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and Peter Bleach, a British citizen. They were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. Following the intervention of Russian authorities, the Latvian crew (ethnic Russians) were pardoned and released in 2000.
The Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith is a residential school for boys with the calm environment of the ancient gurukul system which was the ideology of Swami Vivekananda. Sainik School is on Ranchi Road. GRK DAV is a residential school based on the ideologies of Arya Samaj, founded by Swami Dayananda. The Assembly of God Church School has a morning batch (Bhatbhandh) and a day batch (Ranchi Road). The oldest of the schools is Purulia Zilla which was established in 1853
