The court has held 6 of the remaining 7 accused (Nafees Chishti, Naseem alias Tarzan, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhati, Sohil Gani, Syed Zameer Hussain) guilty in the country’s biggest sex scandal and the blackmail case of Ajmer, Rajasthan. The special court of Ajmer has sentenced all of them to life imprisonment. A fine of Rs 5 lakh each has also been imposed on all. POCSO Special Court No. 2 has given this verdict. Earlier, the court had held all 6 people guilty. In the year 1992, there was a stir when more than 100 college girls were gang-raped and their nude photos were circulated. There were 18 accused in the case. 9 were sentenced. Earlier, the verdict was to come on August 6, but the hearing of the case was postponed till August 20.
Vikram Singh Rathore, Deputy Director in the Prosecution Department, said that the verdict has come in the case going on in Special Court No. 2 of POCSO case against Nafees Chishti, Salim Chishti, Sohail Ghani, Jameel Chishti, residents of Dargah area, Iqbal Bhati, resident of Mumbai and Naseem alias Tarzan, resident of Allahabad. In 1992, Anwar Chishti, Farooq Chishti, Parvez Ansari, Moinullah alias Puttan Allahabadi, Ishrat alias Lalli, Kailash Soni, Mahesh Ludhani, Shamshu Chishti alias Maradona and Naseem alias Tarzan were arrested in the case of obscene photograph blackmail scandal.
Tarzan absconded after getting bail. After this, when he was arrested in a case in Allahabad, a separate hearing was held against him. While the remaining accused were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sessions Court in 1998. On appeal, the High Court reduced the sentence of four accused to 10 years. While the other four accused were acquitted. When this order was appealed in the Supreme Court, the court decided to waive the sentence already served by the accused.
Ajmer Youth Congress’s then president Farooq Chishti, his associate Nafees Chishti and his henchmen used to target school and college girls. In the name of parties, girls were called to farmhouses and restaurants, given intoxicants and gang-raped and their obscene photographs were taken. On the basis of these obscene photographs, the girls were forced to bring other girls. That is, one victim was used to trap another victim.
Before the case was registered, some girls mustered up the courage to go to the police to give their statements, but the police took only their statements and sent them away. Later, the victims kept getting threats. So, they could not muster up the courage to come to the police again. After this, due to fear of public shame, no one was ready to come forward and complain to the police. Later, 18 victims gave statements against the accused in the court.
In 1992, some pornographic photographs were leaked from a color lab in Ajmer and became famous in the city. Then the police registered a case and investigated the pornographic photographs. Then this heinous crime and conspiracy was exposed. More than 100 girls were raped in the pornographic photograph blackmail case. Due to the hooliganism and high connections of the accused, even after the case was registered, no girl dared to come forward. Then the police started searching for the victims on the basis of the photographs.
Some girls who were raped and blackmailed committed suicide. Some kept quiet and left the city. The police got the statements of some victims recorded with great difficulty and presented the charge sheet in the court. The obscene photo blackmail case came to light at a time when the politics in the country was heated over the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. There was a communal atmosphere. Then Ajmer police kept the case pending in view of the possibility of riots. The then Bhairu Singh Shekhawat government decided to hand over the investigation of the case to CID CB. Then the police had to register a case in this matter.