Rajasthan is popular all over the world for its beauty and traditions. There is a history here that women used to commit Jauhar to protect their honour. But in the most holy city of Ajmer in this state, something happened between 1990 and 1992 which created anger in the whole country. In fact, more than 100 school girls were gang-raped in this city in these two years.
Today, the girls got justice in this case after 32 years. Let us tell you, the Special POCSO Court has sentenced 6 accused in this case to life imprisonment. Let us tell you the whole story of the world’s biggest sex scandal case offline.
First know about today’s decision
Today, on 20 August 2024, the Special POCSO Court sentenced 6 accused to life imprisonment in the Ajmer gang rape and blackmail case. There were a total of 18 accused in this case. Out of these, 9 accused have already been sentenced. Whereas, one accused is already in jail in another case and one accused has committed suicide. At the same time, one accused is still absconding.
A newspaper revealed the whole story
In those days, a newspaper used to be published in Ajmer city, Navjyoti Dainik Akhbar. One day in May 1992, when the people of the city woke up in the morning, they found a news printed in the newspaper. The headline of the news was, ‘Daughters of rich people are victims of blackmailing’. It was written by a young reporter Santosh Gupta. As soon as this report was printed in the newspaper and reached the people, there was an uproar in the whole city. By afternoon, the news reached the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. At that time, there was a BJP government in the state and the Chief Minister was Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.
The Chief Minister took this matter seriously and told the police that the accused should not be allowed to escape at any cost. However, the police action was getting delayed and in the meantime the accused were making all arrangements to destroy every evidence. Almost 15 days had passed since the news was published in the newspaper but no action was being taken. Meanwhile Santosh Gupta was writing about new information related to this case in the newspaper every day. When Santosh Gupta felt that no action was being taken against the accused, he also published their pictures in his second news. The headline of this news was, ‘How did the blackmailers of the girl students remain free?’
When people saw the pictures of the accused with the victim girls, their anger reached the seventh sky. The whole city was filled with anger. After this, Santosh Gupta published the third news and its title was, ‘CID had given the information 5 months ago!’ and the fourth news was published ‘These pictures were seen one and a half months ago’. The fourth news broke the dam of people’s anger because it was published on a statement. This statement was given by the then Home Minister of Rajasthan, Digvijay Singh.
People felt that when the government and administration already knew about the entire case and the accused, then why no action was being taken against them. People came out on the streets and declared Ajmer Bandh. Organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal created chaos in the entire city. On the other hand, the lawyers of Ajmer District Bar Association also came forward to get justice for the girls.
Case in the hands of CB CID
When the matter started getting serious, the then Chief Minister of Rajasthan Bhairon Singh Shekhawat handed over the case to CID CB. After this, senior IPS officer N.K. Patni reached Ajmer with his entire team. The investigation started on May 31 and in this investigation, names like Youth Congress city president and dargah’s Khadim Chishti family’s Farooq Chishti, Vice President Nafees Chishti, Joint Secretary Anwar Chishti, former Congress MLA’s 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 was the person who prepared obscene pictures of girls in the lab.
Earlier 8 were arrested
After the investigation, 8 people were arrested. In 1994, when one of the accused Purushottam came out of jail, he committed suicide. However, the first verdict of this case came 6 years later and 8 people were sentenced to life imprisonment and now after 32 years, 6 convicts have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
How the girls became victims of gang rape
This whole case started around 1991. A big youth leader of the city befriended the daughter of a businessman and lured her to Farukh Chishti’s poultry farmhouse in Faisagar. There the girl was first raped and then her photographs were taken. Then the accused blackmailed the girl through these photographs and asked her to bring her friends to this farmhouse as well. While doing this, these accused raped about 100 girls and took their nude photographs.
Later, when the investigation was done, it was found that the accused used to get the photographs of these girls prepared in the lab, from there these photographs reached other people in the city and those people also blackmailed the girls and raped them with the help of these photographs. The age of all these girls was only 17 to 20 years. When the photographs of the girls started getting distributed in the city, 6 of the victim girls committed suicide. Some families left the city and started living a life of anonymity.
