Six of the Ajmer 1992 Sex Scandal’s case Accused were given life sentences this week by the POCSO Court. 9 of the 18 accused square previously received sentences, and the high court had let 4 people go. Each accused people were additionally fined rupees 5 lakh by the POCSO court.
Nafees Chishti, Naseem Alias Tarzan, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhatia, Sohail Ghani, and Syed Zameer Hussain are the accused who were found guilty this week. The Ajmer sex scandal of 1992 was the basis for the 2023 release of the Hindi movie Ajmer 92. But what exactly happened in 1992 in Ajmer?
Ajmer 1992 Sex Scandal
When we Ajmer sex scandal broke in 1992, several hundred school girls and college girls aged between 11 to 20 were being exploited. A group of men lured them, two pictures of them in an awkward situation, and assaulted them sexually. A number of young women were gang-raped and blackmailed, and their silence was forced into them through the use of images and video recordings. A poisonous combination of small-town charm, religious influence, impunity, and political favor was made clear by the case.
Journalist Santosh Gupta initially made the story public in April 92 in the local newspaper Dainik Navjyoti. Numerous school girls were exploited and gang-raped by the accused. Including the powerful district couple of Farooq and Nafis connected to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah and their allies. Victims’ naked photos were printed out and distributed by a nearby photo studio. Following the case’s revelation, Ajmer religious unrest erupted sparking a shutdown throughout the city. The identities and whereabouts of the survivors were unclear in spite of the republic uproar. Although many of the victims were from low-income, middle-class households with government jobs, the media falsely identified them as “IAS IPS ki betiyan”. In the wake, several families left Ajmer in search of safety from the shame and anguish.
A CID investigation, Protest, and A city shutdown
The city came to a complete lockdown when the horrific circumstances of the case were made public. Following the protest, the city had to be shut down for 2 days. The guilty would Imprisoned under the harsh National Security Act. It was determined after the team of attorneys with the district collector Aditi Mehta and the superintendent of police MN Dhawan to get the situation under control.
It was also revealed that long before Gupta’s report on the scandal, a lawyer and BJP leader Veer Kumar, as well as an office bearer of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had allotted the local police to issue Muslim men sexually abusing Hindu girls. In 1992 issue was finally turned over to the CID for investigation by then-chief minister Bhaiton Singh Shekhawat.
In the Ajmer case, multiple girls committed suicide
An FIR was filed by the Ajmer district police administration led by the deputy and then Hariprasad Sharma at the time prior to the case being turned over. In the FIR the important men’s role was also noted. The list of defendants also includes the owner of the Farmhouse and Harish Tolani the manager of the photo studio at the reels were brought.
Numerous girls’ full pictures had gone viral and took their own lives. Rajasthani High Court cleared for of the 8 defendants sentenced to life in jail by an Ajmer session court in 1998. Four others had their penalties reduced to 10 years by the Supreme Court in 2003. Manufacturing became hostile by the time the trial started. Only a small number of 50 to 100 victims had been reported showed up. And even fewer of them stuck to their statements till the end.
The conclusion
Finally, 32 years after the scandal surfaced, 6 more defendants were given life sentences this week. Last number of the young ladies and now mothers and grandmothers. It is commonly said that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
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