Ajmer sex scandal

The Ajmer Sex Scandal occurred in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, and it came to light in 1992. A gang of people befriended school girls, raped them, took photographs in compromising positions and used these photographs to exploit the victims. According to reports, more than 200 girls may have been involved.

Victims

Most of the victims faced harassment and threats. According to police investigations, about half a dozen girls were suspected to have been driven to suicide. Ajmer Mahila Samooh, which tried to take up the cause of the victims, soon withdrew following threats to its activists.

Trial

According to the police and NGOs, it was a tough case to build, because most of the victims were reluctant to come forward. The photographs and videos used for blackmail helped to identify the accused and to build the case against them.

Of the girls suspected to have been subjected to rape and blackmail, 30 were identified in the investigations. Twelve filed cases and of these, 10 later backed out.cite news |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1512/15120400.htm |title=Convictions in Ajmer |publisher=Frontline |date=6-19 June 1998 |author=T. K. Rajalakshmi] Of the sixteen men identified by the complainants, eleven were arrested. [cite news |url=http://www.expressindia.com/ie/daily/19980526/14650734.html |title="Women are worse than cows here" |publisher=The Indian Express |date=1998-04-26 |author=Sourish Bhattacharyya]

Political controversy surrounded the legal proceedings. Many of the accused had political connections, and it was alleged in the Indian press that only those with non-Bharatiya Janata Party affiliations were arrested. One of the lawyers involved in the case, Parasam Sharma, a district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), alleged that he had received threats from some of the accused.

The first judgment came in 1998 after six years of proceedings. Eight of the accused were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by Ajmer District court. Of the remaining eight accused, Farooq Chishti, a former Indian Youth Congress leader and son of a Khadim, was reported to have lost his mental balance and turned schizophrenic. His trial is still pending.

Another of the accused, Purushottam, was said to have committed suicide soon after he was released on bail on March 8, 1994. Six others, including the two main accused, Nafees Chishti and Sohail Ghani, disappeared.

The Rajasthan High Court reduced the quantum of punishment for four of the eight convicts from life sentence to 10 years' imprisonment, but maintained the life sentence on the other four. The Government of Rajasthan filed an appeal against the reduction in punishment in the Supreme Court of India while the four had challenged their conviction.

In 2004, the Supreme court dismissed both the appeals filed by the State, as well as those filed by the convicted persons. A bench comprising Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Justice B. P. Singh concluded: “having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, we are of the view that the ends of justice would be met if the sentence is reduced to ten years rigorous imprisonment.” [cite news |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040203/asp/nation/story_2854279.asp |title=Sex offenders' term reduced |publisher=The Telegraph |date=2004-02-03]

See also

*Jalgaon sex scandal

References