TCS Nashik case: Hunt on for absconding female accused, husband questioned

The hunt for absconding female employee who is an accused in the TCS Nashik case is on as a team from the Nashik Crime Branch has reached Mumbra on Friday in search for her.

According to a report by the Times of India, the accused female employee's husband is currently being questioned by the Nashik police.

A police official said that she has been living in Mumbra for the last two months.

The absconding accused, Nida Khan, is likely to approach a Nashik court for anticipatory bail citing her pregnancy and medical condition.

As the police have arrested seven people so far, Nida is said to be the 'mastermind' in the case.

Amongst the eight accused, she is said to be the 'HR head' but according to media reports, Nida joined the BPO in December 2021 as a telecaller, and not as an HR employee.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday had said that his government was confident of busting the module involved in the alleged sexual harassment and forcible religious conversion at a unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Nashik.

Fadnavis said that the MNC 'took serious note of the issue and initiated necessary steps' to assist the ongoing investigation.

A local court on Thursday had remanded two accused in fresh police custody till April 18.

Raza Rafiq Memon (35) and Shafi Bikhan Sheikh (36), both arrested afresh on Wednesday after being remanded in judicial custody in a related case, were produced in the court on Thursday. The judge remanded them in two-day police custody.

They are booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Sections 74 (outraging woman's modesty), 75 (sexual harassment) and 79 (word, gesture, act, or object used with the intention to insult the modesty of a woman).

Seven employees - six men working at the MNC's Nashik unit and a woman HR manager - have been arrested so far. One female accused is on the run.

A plea was also filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking directions to control deceitful religious conversion.

The petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay contended that deceitful religious conversion is not only a serious threat to sovereignty, secularism, democracy and liberty but also a menace to fraternity, dignity, unity and national intergration.

The petition contended that the offence of forced conversion, when undertaken as part of a systematic, organised and coercive campaign, falls within the ambit of a "terrorist act" as defined under Section 113 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

It has also sought directions to the Centre and the states to establish special courts to deal with religious conversion cases and declare that the sentence for deceitful religious conversion shall be consecutive, not concurrent.

The case traces back to a complaint filed in February with the Nashik City Police by a political party worker.

The complaint alleged that a Hindu woman employed at the TCS facility had begun observing Ramzan fasts, prompting suspicions of religious influence at the workplace.

It was this tip-off that led the police to quietly initiate a covert probe into the office environment.

Officers contacted the woman’s family, who reportedly told investigators they had withdrawn her from work after noticing changes in her religious practices.

Amid suspicion that organised groups played a larger role in the sexual harassment and religious conversion case involving employees of TCS, the Nashik police is also investigating the travel history, call records and bank accounts of the eight accused and one absconding suspect.

(With DH Online, PTI and DHNS inputs)