1992 Ajmer sex scandal | POCSO court, Jaipur sentences 6 accused to life imprisonment after 32 years

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Court, Jaipur: In a landmark verdict in the infamous 1992 Ajmer Sex scandal, in which over 100 minor girls were raped and exploited, a single-judge bench of Ranjan Singh, J., found six persons guilty of gang rape and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the heinous crime. The court also imposed fines of Rs 5 lakh on each of the accused.

The Ajmer sex scandal was exposed in 1992 by a local newspaper, causing widespread outrage and fear in the country. The scandal involved systematic sexual exploitation and blackmail of schoolgirls, aged between 11 and 20, using nude photographs. A gang of individuals befriended underage girls, took photographs of them in compromising situations, called the victims to a farmhouse and later raped them. The perpetrators were wealthy young men from influential families, including those associated with the Khadims, the caretakers of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti’s dargah and the Ajmer Youth Congress and Ajmer Indian National Congress.

A total of 18 people were involved in the sex scandal, of which 9 were previously convicted, 1 committed suicide, 1 was later charged with molesting a boy, 1 was declared a fugitive by the court, and 6 suspects completed their trials in July 2024. 8 suspects who were previously sentenced to life imprisonment appealed to the Supreme Court, which resulted in the acquittal of 4 suspects and the conviction of the other 4 suspects being upheld. The 4 convicted suspects then appealed to the Supreme Court in 2003, and the Supreme Court reduced their sentences from life imprisonment to 10 years.

Source: Press