Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Court, Jaipur: In a historic verdict in notorious 1992 Ajmer Sex scandal which involved the rape and exploitation of over 100 minor girls, a single-judge bench of Ranjan Singh, J., found six individuals guilty of gangrape and sentenced them for life imprisonment for the heinous crime. The Court additionally slapped fines of Rs 5 lakh on each of the accused.
The Ajmer sex scandal was exposed by a local newspaper in 1992, leading to widespread outrage and fear in the country. The scandal involved systematic sexual exploitation and blackmail of schoolgirls, aged between 11 and 20 years, using nude photographs. A gang of individuals used to befriend minor girls, took their photographs in compromising situations, call the victims to a farmhouse, and later raped them. The perpetrators were affluent young men from influential families, including those associated with the Khadims, the caretakers of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti’s dargah and Ajmer Youth Congress and Ajmer Indian National Congress.
A total of 18 individuals were implicated in the sex scandal, out of which 9 were previously sentenced, 1 committed suicide, 1 was later charged with molesting a boy, 1 was declared a fugitive by the court and 6 accused completed their trial in July 2024. 8 accused who were previously sentenced to life imprisonment appealed to the High Court, which resulted in acquitted of 4 accused and upheld conviction for other 4 accused. The 4 convicted accused subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court in 2003, and the Supreme Court reduced their sentences from life imprisonment to 10 years.
Source: Press
