It’s been more than three decades, and over 100 school and college-going Hindu girls are still waiting for justice. In 1992, through a local newspaper, it emerged that these girls were raped and blackmailed by affluent young men, mostly Muslims, from influential families of Ajmer, Rajasthan. Many of these men included those associated with the Khadims, the caretakers of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishti’s dargah, Ajmer Youth Congress and Ajmer Indian National Congress.
The usual nature of the judiciary was displayed when the first conviction in this case happened six years later. In it, 18 people received life imprisonment and Rs 5 lakh was slapped as fine on each of them. Out of 18, 8 appealed at the Rajasthan High Court (HC), and 4 became successful in securing bail. Lack of evidence helped them achieve it. A lack caused due to delay. The remaining 4 went to the Supreme Court (SC), and the apex court was kind enough to reduce their sentences to 10 years imprisonment from life imprisonment.
For more than three decades, the case continued through staggering trials, appeals, absconding accused, and rehearings. It was only in August 2024, that a Special POCSO Court in Ajmer convicted six remaining accused—Nafees Chishti, Naseem, Salim Chishti, Iqbal Bhati, Sohail Ghani, and Syed Zaheer Hussain—and sentenced them to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs 5 lakh each, marking the last major conviction in the case after 32 years. But, here’s the twist. Last year, in 2025, the Rajasthan HC suspended the sentences of four of these convicts and granted them bail pending appeal, once again reopening uncertainty for survivors.
Law existed, justice arrived, but not fully.
The pain of delay can be understood by the words of one of the gang-rape survivors. She said, ‘Why are you still calling me to court again and again? It has been 30 years’, shouting at the judges and lawyers. ‘I am now a grandmother, leave me alone.’
Nothing much has changed; the system remains the same, as the tragic rape and murder case in Kolkata two years back painfully illustrates.
On 9 August 2024, a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor was found raped and murdered in a seminar room at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. Initial investigations by the Kolkata Police were widely criticised as slow and inadequate. In addition, four days later, the Calcutta HC transferred the case to the CBI after dissatisfaction with the local investigation.
Subsequently, Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment till natural death by a Sealdah trial court in January 2025. A fine was also imposed on Roy.
The case, however, did not end with this.
The Calcutta HC admitted the CBI’s appeal seeking the death penalty for Roy. Justice, in this, too, would arrive, but not known—when.
This case thus highlights a recurring pattern: even in one of the most heinous forms of sexual violence—rape followed by murder in a supposed democracy, and secure institutional space—justice remains protracted and contested.
Courts have 50 million+ pending cases. Few judges (30% short). Police mess up: late FIR, lost evidence, force deals. Conviction rate? Just 27-30% (NCRB). It is important to note that in our nation, a large number of sexual assault cases—an estimated 35% to 71%—never get reported. Survivors often stay silent due to shame, fear of social stigma, and deep mistrust of the police and legal system.
Yesterday, it was girls who are alive asking for justice, and today, it’s a dead girl’s parents asking for it. But the system of appeals and hierarchies continues to trap and throw justice far away.
Nancy Mahavir Sharma is an LLM graduate who writes on law, policy, and judicial developments.