1992 Ajmer rapes: POCSO court sentences 6 more accused to life imprisonment

Jaipur: A POCSO court has sentenced six more men to life imprisonment in the sensational Ajmer sex scandal, in which more than 100 girls were raped and blackmailed.

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court judge Ranjan Singh also slapped fines of Rs 5 lakh on each of the accused.

Prosecution counsel Virendra Singh said that Nafees Chishti, Naseem alias Tarzan, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhati, Sohail Gani and Sayed Zameer Hussain were convicted of being involved in the crime. Bhati was brought to Ajmer from Delhi in an ambulance.

The Ajmer sex scandal came to light in 1992.

The school and college-going girls aged between 11 and 20 years were victimised by a gang, whose members befriended them and shot their photographs in compromising situations, and later raped them.

There were a total of 18 accused in the case.

Singh said the first charge sheet in the case was filed against 12.

Among them, Naseem alias Tarzan went absconding in 1994, and Jahur Chishti was found guilty under Section 377 (unnatural sex) and his case was transferred to another court.

The trial of Farooq Chishti ran separately after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and he was given a life term in 2007. One of the accused committed suicide.

The other eight accused were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998.

He said the second charge sheet was filed against Nafees Chishti, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhati, Sohail Gani, Sayed Zameer Hussain, and Almas who is still at large.

The remaining five -- Nafees Chishti, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhati, Sohail Gani, Sayed Zameer Hussain and another accused Naseem alias Tarzan -- named in the first charge sheet and went absconding -- were awarded life imprisonment on Tuesday.

The other accused, who were given punishment in the past, have either completed their terms or been acquitted by the courts.

The lawyer said that a separate trial for these six was conducted because the investigation against them was kept pending at the time of the filing of the first charge sheet.

The victims studied in a famous private school in Ajmer. They were called to a farmhouse, where they were raped.