Paragangliomas are extra-adrenal neuroendocrine tumours that derive from neural crest. They are benign tumours in general but few cases had shown their tendency to metastasize. Malignant forms have been reported previously with intracranial metastasis from duodenal origin but primary intracranial origin represent a rare and unusual location for such tumours. We report a rare case for a 48 year old lady who presented with symptomatic right sided insular mass with negative metastatic work up. A complete surgical resection had been done with an unexpected diagnosis of primary gangliocytic paraganglioma with malignant features.