The perpetrators, led by Farooq and Nafees Chishti, were extended member of the Khadim family of Ajmer Sharif Dargah.
Over several years, ending in 1992, they lured victims to remote farmhouses or bungalows, where they were sexually assaulted by one or several of the men and photographed naked or otherwise revealing positions to prevent the women from speaking out.
[3] N. K. Patni, then Superintendent of Police of the CID-Crime Branch, remarked that the case emerged during a period of escalating communal tensions in India, following L.K.
[5] Retired Rajasthan DGP Omendra Bhardwaj noted the influence of the accused made it difficult for victims to testify.
She was introduced to Nafees and Farooq Chishti by an acquaintance who assured her that they were influential and could help her achieve her political ambitions.
[1] According to her testimony, documented in a 2003 Supreme Court judgment, she was groomed, sexually assaulted, and subsequently blackmailed by the Chishti duo.
Nafees and Farooq gained her trust by offering her a lift in their van and promising to discuss her entry into the party.
[1] The perpetrators, sometimes introduced to the victims as her brothers, would invite them to "parties" at a farmhouse or Farooq’s bungalow on Foy Sagar Road.
According to journalist Santosh Gupta, law enforcement officials, from Superintendents of Police to Station House Officers, often sought the Chishtis' mediation in legal matters, making it difficult to hold them accountable.
[11] The scandal came to public attention when employees at a photo lab, where the perpetrators had their incriminating photographs developed, began circulating the images.
A reel developer, boasted about the photos to his neighbor, Devendra Jain, who then made copies and distributed them to Dainik Navajyoti and the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) group.
The case gained widespread attention, leading to a complete shutdown of Ajmer on 18 May 1992, driven by public outrage over the scandal.
Retired Rajasthan DGP Omendra Bhardwaj, who was the Deputy Inspector General of Police in Ajmer at that time, stated that the social and financial aristocracy of the accused stopped many more victims from coming forward.
[16] The Rajasthan police's Special Operations Group (SOG) arrested Salim Chishti, 42, one of the accused from Khalid Mohalla in Ajmer town on 4 January 2012.
Of the 18 accused who were charged with abduction and gang rape under the Indian Penal Code and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, one has since died by suicide.
Among them, Naseem alias Tarzan went absconding in 1994, and Zahoor Chishti was found guilty under Section 377 (unnatural sex) of the Indian Penal Code and his case was transferred to another court.
[27] Due to the multiple surrendering, sentencing, or any other development in the case, the survivors had to return to court and narrate their stories, causing them to relive the horror over and over.
"[16] Zee News aired a documentary "The Black Chapter of Ajmer" on 16 July 2023 [30] regarding the case, which was temporarily available on YouTube before its subsequent removal the following day.