Last December, a gangrape survivor's anger stunned a POCSO courtroom into silence. The victim wasn't displaying her anger at the rapists or the fact that they were still out on bail. She was directing her frustration at the judiciary, the media, administration and the system that collectively failed her and let her down. Miserably. Her question tore through the soul of the courtroom in Rajasthan's Ajmer.
"Why are you still calling me to court again and again? It has been 30 years," she shouted, questioning the judge, lawyers in the presence of the accused. "I am now a grandmother, leave me alone. We have families. What do we tell them?" she fumed.
The infamous and even more unfortunately dealt with 1992 Ajmer gang rape case is an open wound and a slap in the face of judiciary.
The black chapter in the history of Ajmer
In the nineties, when social media activism was not yet discovered, women empowerment at its lowest and citizen journalism unheard of, things were easy to get away with. Especially sexual crimes against women. Even more so if one came from the corruptive legacy of old money, religious privilege and political power.
The infamous Chishty duo; Farooq and Nafis Chishty came just from this background. Belonging to the custodian family of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, they had access to scores of young school-going girls, whom they trapped into submission, gangraped and blackmailed into silence for months at end. Facilitating the two with these heinous crimes were their gang of loyal pals. A photo colour lab printed the nude photographs of the raped women, which were later circulated.
Where are Farooq Chishty and Nafis Chishty today?
It is a widely accepted fact that everyone in Ajmer knew who the culprit was. But when the story first came to light, as often religious undertones took prominence, communal tensions broke in Ajmer and it even shut down. The accused were local celebrities and the victims were unknown women who wanted to hide their identity, which is why many of them changed cities, disappeared.
Court documents, first information report and charge sheets provide enough circumstantial evidence of the sexual assault, exploitation and blackmail that happened at three primary locations belonging to the accused; Ajmer bungalow, a farmhouse and a poultry farm.
Today, not much seems to have changed for both Farooq Chishty and Nafis Chishty. In 2007, Farooq was sentenced to life imprisonment but in 2013, Rajasthan High Court deemed he had served 'enough' time and he was released. He resides in Ajmer where his social clout stays intact, as does that of his close family.
A detailed expose in The Print says that, his nephew Haji Syed Salman Chishty hosts Bollywood megastars like Shah Rukh Khan. As for Nafis, he was absconding until caught in 2003 by Delhi Police while trying to escape wearing a burqa. Today he is out on bail and respected just as much back in Ajmer, visits Dargah Sharif sans hesitation. The other co-accused, Iqbal, Saleem Chishty, Syed Jamir Hussain, Naseem aka Tarzan and Suhail Ghani are also out on bail.
When legal system favours the accused
As if the trauma of the rape is not enough, the victims reporting the crime have to undergo the rigmarole of the system. Of the marginal number of rape cases that got reported, policemen landed up at the women's houses to deliver the summons, every single time a trial started, an accused surrendered or was arrested. If summons by policemen knocking on the door were not enough, Section 273 of Criminal Procedure Code says that the survivors' testimony has tobe recorded in the presence of the accused. A process that makes the victims relive the trauma.
Police records mentioned the vague first names of the survivors and addresses which are no longer relevant. Teenage girls in high school back then, many of them are now even grandmothers, have long moved out of the city and are no longer even expecting a semblance of justice.
In the meanwhile, during the span of three decades, the case has moved from the district court to the Rajasthan High Court, Women Atrocities Court, Supreme Court, Fast Track Court, before currently falling under the POCSO court.
Justice delayed, justice denied and how?
It was in September 1992 that the trial began. Since then several police officials involved in the case have filed six chargesheets, named 18 accused, mentioned roughly 150 eyewitnesses. The case has changed hands and spanned 12 public prosecutors (many of which weakened the case), 30 SHOs, around one dozen each senior police official in every capacity, from SSPs, DIGs to DGPs. As per the local populace, media ground reports and even the police, it is suspected that atleast a 100 teenage girls were exploited, but only 17 victims recorded their statements, many of which eventually turned hostile due to various reasons.
What comes of rape cases in India?
Ajmer gangrape case isn't the only rape case to have shaken the soul of the nation and expose the moral deprivation, Unnao Rape Case, Nirbhaya Rape case, Hathras Rape Case have been a timely reminder the crimes against women and systemic flaws. As per NCRB report 2019, Uttar Pradesh topped the states in crimes against women, with a scary number of 59,853 cases, followed by Rajasthan and Maharashtra with 41,550 cases and 37, 144 cases respectively. It was not long ago that a survey by Thomas Reuters Foundation in 2018 ranked India as the most dangerous country for women. Poor conviction rate, long and harrowing process of justice remain responsible for a vast majority of rape cases going unreported. In 2018 and 2019, the conviction rate for rapes was below 30 per cent. What are the chances that victims will come forward to undergo long harrowing wait for justice? And what are the chances that perpetrators will be emboldened by this figure to commit the crime? Statistics speak more than words.
