Ajmer sex scandal case: Ajmer in Rajasthan is famous all over the world for the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti and the Pushkar temple. Something happened in the atmosphere of this religious city between 1990 and 1992, which not only tarnished the Ganga-Jamuni culture, but also became a bad stain on the social fabric of Ajmer. At that time, a news was published in a local daily Navjyoti newspaper which shook everyone.
sex racket exposed
This news exposed the sexual exploitation of school girls by blackmailing them with their obscene pictures. The news published under the title “Daughters of rich people are victims of blackmail” caused a stir as soon as the newspaper reached the hands of the readers. Be it the leaders, the police, the administration, the government, the people associated with social, religious, municipal service organizations, everyone was terrified. How did this happen? Who are they? Who did this happen to?
Sexual harassment of girls in girls’ school
After this, it was revealed that a gang kept calling girls studying in Ajmer’s Girls School Sophia to farm houses and raping them and the families of those girls did not even get a clue. The girls who were raped also included daughters of IAS and IPS officers. This entire incident was carried out by blackmailing through obscene pictures. The number of victim girls was said to be more than 100. The age of these girls was between 17 to 20 years.
This is how this horrifying sex scandal started
At the beginning of this scandal, a man named Farooq Chishti first trapped a girl from Sophia School. He raped her. During this, he took her obscene pictures. After this, he started blackmailing her through these obscene pictures. He asked her to seduce other girls from the school. The girl was forced to take her friends to the farm house as well. The game of rape and blackmail continued with all of them.
Photos were taken at the time of rape
One after the other, the second after the third, in this way more than a hundred girls from the same school were raped. These girls used to go to farm houses in front of their families. Vehicles used to come to pick them up. They used to drop them at their homes as well. Photos were taken while the girls were being raped. After this, more girls were called by threatening them. Politicians, police, officers were also involved in raping these school girls.
Farooq Chishti was the kingpin of the racket
The mastermind of this sex scandal was Farooq Chishti. Nafees Chishti and Anwar Chishti were also involved with him. All three were leaders of Youth Congress. Farooq was the president. These people also had access to the khadims of the dargah. Due to their access to the khadims, the rapists had both political and religious power. Most of the rape victims were from Hindu families. Most of the rapists were from the Muslim community. Due to this, the police were afraid.
The police got scared so that communal riots do not take place
Despite knowing about this scandal, the police was not taking any action. They were afraid that communal riots might break out and it might become difficult to handle the situation. Slowly the whole city came to know about this scandal. Obscene pictures of the girls started floating in the air. Whoever got a chance would take advantage of them. They would blackmail the girls and rape them. Even the technician who developed the photos from the negatives was involved in this.
6-7 girls had committed suicide
Seeing their disgrace in the society, the girls started committing suicide one by one. The only way they could escape from this hell was to end their lives. Because the family, society, police and even the administration were not doing anything. In this way, after the suicide of 6-7 girls, the matter became serious. Meanwhile, Santosh Gupta, a journalist of Dainik Navjyoti, started a series on this case. His reports started putting pressure on the police and administration.
The newspaper’s revelations had exposed the truth
Journalist Santosh Gupta published the second news with the title “How did the blackmailers of the girl students remain free?” Along with the news, he also published obscene pictures of the girls so that the sexual exploitation of the girl students could be seen with open eyes. After this, it was as if a storm came in the whole of Rajasthan. The third news was published with the title “CID had given the information five months ago!” In the fourth news, the statement of the Home Minister of the state came that “He had seen the obscene photographs one and a half months ago”. After this, the public came out on the streets and announced Ajmer Bandh. There was a lot of pressure on the government and administration.
Police played a game to suppress the sex scandal
The aware organizations of the city became active to punish the culprits. The whole game of sexual exploitation of school girls was being done in a planned manner by the influential youth of the Muslim community with Hindu girls. Organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal raised their fists against this. The then Chief Minister of Rajasthan Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was informed about this matter. He asked to take action.
Trying to suppress the case
After this, the then Deputy Superintendent Hariprasad Sharma was first given verbal orders to conduct a secret investigation of the case. After the revelations in the secret investigation, the district administration was left in a state of panic. After this, the process of suppressing this case was started. The then Inspector General of Police Omendra Bhardwaj held a formal press conference and declared this sex scandal to be false. He even raised questions on the character of the four girls.
The investigation was given to CID CB
After the statement of the Inspector General of Police made headlines in the newspapers, protests started not only in Ajmer but all over Rajasthan. This sex scandal started being discussed all over the country. Finally, amid pressure from all sides, on 30 May 1992, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat handed over the case to CID CB. After this, Ajmer Police also filed a report in this case. The very next day, senior IPS officer N.K. Patni reached Ajmer with his entire team.
The accused were caught after the entry of CID CB
The investigation of this case started from 31 May 1992. In this investigation, the names of criminals named Farooq Chishti, city president of Youth Congress and Khadim of Dargah, Chishti family, Vice President Nafees Chishti, Joint Secretary Anwar Chishti, former Congress MLA’s close relative Almas Maharaj, Ishrat Ali, Iqbal Khan, Salim, Zameer, Sohail Ghani, Puttan Allahabadi, Naseem Ahmed alias Tarzan, Pravez Ansari, Mohibullah alias Maradona, Kailash Soni, Mahesh Ludhani, Purushottam alias John Wesley alias Babna and Harish Tolani came to light. Among them, Harish Tolani used to be the manager of Ajmer Color Lab.
The local court had sentenced eight people to life imprisonment
After this, after getting the victim girls to identify the accused, the police arrested eight of them. In 1994, one of the accused, Purushottam, committed suicide after coming out of jail on bail. The first verdict of this case came six years later, in which the Ajmer court sentenced eight people to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, Farooq Chishti lost his mental balance. Due to that, his trial became pending.
One accused was caught after 19 years
After some time, the court reduced the sentence of four accused. They were sentenced to ten years in jail instead of life imprisonment. After this, the Rajasthan government challenged this order in the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court rejected it. 19 years after this incident, one of the accused Salim Nafees was caught by the police in 2012, but he too was released on bail. Many victims were waiting for justice in the country’s biggest sex scandal.
Now 6 criminals have been convicted
The remaining 6 accused in the Ajmer gang rape and blackmail case that happened 32 years ago have been found guilty by the Special POCSO Court. On Tuesday, the court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. The accused Nafees Chishti, Naseem alias Tarzan, Salim Chishti, Sohil Gani, Syed Zameer Hussain have reached the court, while Iqbal Bhati is being brought from Delhi. There were 18 accused in the case of gang rape and blackmailing of more than 100 school and college girls in 1992. 9 have been sentenced. One accused is in jail in another case. One has committed suicide and one is currently absconding. The court has sentenced the remaining 6 accused to life imprisonment.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)