4 TCS employees get judicial custody till May 18 in male colleague's religious conversion case

Nashik: A court in Maharashtra's Nashik on Tuesday remanded till May 18 four Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employees in judicial custody in connection with alleged religious conversion of their male colleague.

The four accused - Raza Rafiq Memon (35), Tausif Bilal Attar (37), Danish Ejaz Sheikh (32) and Shahrukh Husain Shaukat Qureshi (34) - are also accused of sexually harassing some women colleagues at the local unit of the leading global IT services, consulting, and business solutions organisation.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) took the accused into custody on April 23 under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 75 (sexual harassment), 79 (act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), and 302 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person).

They were earlier remanded in police custody till May 5. After their custody ended on Tuesday, they were produced before Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate S V Lad.

During the hearing, the prosecution sought their judicial custody. The court accepted the demand and sent the four accused in judicial custody till May 18.

TCS has clarified that it has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and coercion of any form for a long time, and the employees allegedly involved in sexual harassment at the Nashik office have been suspended.