For decades, the Indian media has artfully played the game of hiding scandals or instances that exposed the activities of Islamic supremacists and jihadis, and illuminated their mindset. However, in the past ten years, the onset of Internet literacy among Indians and their newly found zeal for political and social awareness have exhumed many skeletons of Islamic jihad activity. The 1992 Ajmer rape case is just one such incident. This dead topic found its way back to the media after the teaser of the Hindi movie called Ajmer 92 was released a couple of months ago. Despite many objections from the Muslim camp, as well as threats and political gimmicks, the movie finally made its way to the theatres on Friday, July 21, 2023, sparking widespread national discussion of these gory serial rapes.
Ajmer is a prominent town, one of the oldest in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is home to a major Muslim shrine, the tomb of Ajmer Shariff. Politicians, celebrities and high-profile media influencers frequent this Sufi tomb to pay respects, as well as to gain publicity and media headlines. Though the shrine is considered one of the holiest for Muslims in India, in 1992, its high-profile caretakers were embroiled in a serial rape case. Their massive religious influence aside, they were also politically well-connected, which, according to reports, seamlessly helped bury the scandalous and ghastly incident.
The chilling 1992 Ajmer serial rapes involved hundreds of school girls, a Muslim Chishti and some horrifying instances of blackmail and sexual exploitation.
These cases came to light after a local paper, Navjyoti, released some highly objectionable photographs, along with a report claiming that some local gangs were blackmailing female students of Ajmer’s Sophia Girls School. The horrific news sent tremors across the country, and readers were deeply shocked at the revelations.
The scandal started with one Farooq Chishti, who belonged to the khadims (caretakers) of Ajmer Sharif Dargah, befriending a student of the Girl’s School and luring her into his sinister trap. Reportedly, he raped her, took some inappropriate photographs, and then began blackmailing her. This student was not the only victim of the notorious cycle involving this khadim. The khadim had demanded that she bring him more girls. The girl was forced to introduce him to other girls to keep him from making her inappropriate pictures public; the girls she brought in were also raped and blackmailed in the same way.
The gang, which consisted of Muslim men from seats of religious and political influence, continued to expand its operations and target an increasing number of Hindu minor girls. While Farooq Chishti was the president of the Ajmer Youth Congress, others, such as Anwar Chishti and Nafis Chishti, held key positions, including joint secretary and vice president of the city Congress unit. (The Congress is India’s grand old party, which ruled the country for most of its independent years and exerted significant influence countrywide.) Some of the other accused were also the Chishti khadims (caretakers) of the Islamic shrine, Ajmer Dargah.
After the case details were public, the town was buzzing with rumors that many victims had committed suicide. As outraged civilians took to the streets, demanding justice, a spike in communal tension became the natural outcome. But as per reports, the police, upon facing political resistance, abruptly stalled the investigations around the case.
The police and NGOs that were focused on women’s issues stated that building a case against the accused individuals was challenging, as most of the victims were not ready to come forward. The photographs and videos that were being used to blackmail the girls helped in identifying the accused and building the case to some extent. “The accused were in a position of influence, both socially and financially, and that made it even more difficult to persuade the girls to come forward and depose,” said retired Rajasthan D.G.P. Omendra Bhardwaj. Bhardwaj was serving as the deputy inspector general of police in Ajmer at the time of the incident.
Finally, 19 individuals were charged with kidnapping and gang rape under the Indian Penal Code, as well as with violating the Prohibition on Indecent Representation of Women. One has since committed suicide. Eight were given life sentences, and four were acquitted in 2001.
In 2004, the Supreme Court of India dismissed the appeals filed by the state and the convicts. A judicial bench comprising Justice BP Singh and Justice N Santosh Hegde held: “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.”
Though a fast-track court in Ajmer convicted Farooq Chishti in 2007, in 2013, Rajasthan High Court released him, stating he had served “enough” time.
It has been 30 years, but the infamous 1992 Ajmer gang rape case still stands as an open, ripe, unhealed wound, mocking the victims who are now mothers and grandmothers, but were just kids at the time they had to endure rape and blackmailing; these kids were overlooked, neglected, and denied justice for being Hindus in a Muslim-pandering secular nation.
Last year, a video of Ajmer Dargah Khadim Salman Chishti surfaced on various social media platforms, wherein he could be seen making an appeal to eliminate former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. In the 2-minute-50 second-long video, the khadim, who has over 13 cases (including that of murder and attempt to murder) filed against him, offered his house and property to anyone who “brings the head of Nupur Sharma.”