Mumbai: Seven people arrested, one absconding, nine victims, allegations of sexual harassment and religious coercion by employees of a multinational BPO. This case in Maharashtra’s Nashik has stirred the state’s politics, now drawing in the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
On Monday, the IT sector employees’ body Nascent Information Technology Employees Body (NITES) approached the Ministry of Labour and Employment, seeking a detailed audit of Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) compliance in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). NITES also advocated for a wider state-level audit across tech and IT companies, especially large multinational organisations in Maharashtra, urging the ministry to take “immediate and decisive action”.
Late Monday evening, TCS ordered a separate probe into the matter as Chairman of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. N Chandrasekaran in an official statement said, “This incident is being treated with the utmost seriousness,” while calling the complaints and allegations, “gravely concerning and anguishing”.
In March, Nashik Police lodged nine First Information Reports (FIRs), after eight female employees and one male employee at the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Nashik office accused colleagues and HR officials of alleged assault, sexual violence, and pressure for religious coercion and conversion over the past four years, starting in 2022.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, former member of the Rajya Sabha and former deputy leader of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), said that the statement issued by the chairman “does not do much to reassure anyone”.
Posting on social media platform X, she said, “This statement comes after a pathetically worded press release was issued by @TCS and obviously backlash followed. Am sorry Chairman, women’s safety at workplace is a law and considering it went on for as long as 4 years, your statement doesn’t do much to reassure anyone.”
Chandrasekaran also announced a thorough investigation by the company to “establish the facts and identify all individuals responsible”. For this, he named Aarthi Subramanian, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at TCS, as the head of the investigation team. In its statement on Sunday, TCS confirmed the suspension of all accused in the matter.
In the spotlight
The case first came to light on 25 March, when a female employee at TCS filed the first complaint at the Deolali Camp Police Station in Nashik. In her complaint she accused a male employee at the company of sexually exploiting and molesting her at various instances. She also alleged that three colleagues, including a women, hurt her religious sentiments on multiple occasions since 2022.
The Nashik Police began investigating the accused on the basis of the First Information Report and urged other employees to come forward.
In an FIR filed by a male employee at the Mumbai Naka Police Station, he accused four men—Tausif Attar, Danish Shaikh, Shahrukh Qureshi and Raza Memon—of allegedly attempting to convert him, by insulting Hindu gods and speaking against Hinduism while promoting Islam. He was also forced to offer prayers and compelled to consume non-vegetarian food, against his will. This, he claimed, went on for four years.
A copy of his FIR that ThePrint has seen states, “They often insulted my faith and made derogatory remarks about my religion. They humiliated me by speaking badly about my religion while praising their own. The tried to influence me continuously.”
He also stated that, “Tausif and Danish behaved badly with both men and women in the office. In 2023, during Ramadan Eid, Tausif took me to his house against my will, forced me to wear their religious cap, made me pray namaz, took my photograph and shard it in the group. Tausif, Danish, Shahrukh and Raza made me recite the Kalma one day when I was working at my desk.”
In total the FIRs included several violations of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) under Sections 75 (Sexual Harassment), 79 (Intent to insult modesty of women), 302 (Intend to wound religious feelings), 299 (Deliberate acts to outrage religious feelings), and 3(5) (Common intention or joint liability).
Soon after the first complaint by the female employee on 25 March, eight others, including the male employee, at TCS Nashik office came forward. By 3 April 2026, a total of nine FIRs were filed at the two police stations.
The FIRs of the female employees include complaints like touching without consent, lewd comments, body shaming, stalking, repeated harassment in company premises and unwanted proposals.
One of the victims also highlighted neglect by the Human Resources (HR) department and filed a complaint against Nida Khan, the HR manager who allegedly failed to act on the emails flagging the harassment and assault. “Instead of taking corrective measures, the HR officer told me to stay cool as some of gestures were common in MNC work culture,” the victim stated in her FIR.
Undercover op
Since the filing of complaints, seven women police officers went undercover and entered the TCS Nashik office. The were able to catch one of the accused in the act as he misbehaved with women. The police are now combing video footage from over 40 CCTV cameras to collect more proof.
The senior officer told ThePrint, “The undercover operation was carefully designed within the team and it proved to be instrumental since after almost a month we were able to catch one of those accused red-handed.”
The SIT formed by the Nashik Police Department and led by Sandeep Mitke, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nashik, has managed to nab seven accused – Danish Shaikh, Tausif Attar, Raza Menon, Shahrukh Qureshi, Shafi Shaikh and Asif Aftab Ansari.
The police are now searching for Nida Khan, who is not only accused of alleged neglect but is also assumed to be a key player of the ‘conversion racket’ who would circulate the names of female employees on a WhatsApp group following which they were targeted by the alleged accused male employees.
“The search for her is still ongoing. We believe she was involved in this at a much larger scale. While we search for her throughout the state and country, we are collecting more evidence against her and rest of the accused as well,” a senior police official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) Act 2013, companies ought to maintain independent Internal Complaints Committees (ICCs), yet allegations surrounding TCS Nashik suggest that system in this failed since the HR head was herself allegedly involved.
In light of this, the SIT is probing possible systemic failures and has put the company’s internal complaints mechanism under scrutiny. “We are expediting our investigation at the company, speaking to more employees to see if any more of the senior level employees were also involved,” the officer told ThePrint.
While judicial custody initially was granted by the Judicial Magistrate court until 13 April, the court has granted another two days, extending remand till Wednesday.
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Politics follows
On Friday, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Girish Mahajan, also the Guardian Minister for Nashik, told the media that a Special Investigation Team has been formed by Nashik Police and is being led by Sandeep Mitke, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Nashik.
“Concerning the issue of religious conversion, it has come to light that four or five Muslim supervisors and some officers within the company lured these young women with false promises. They enticed them by saying, ‘We are providing you with a job and will pay you a handsome salary’,” Mahajan told reporters.
He added, “Having thus entrapped them, they proceeded to convert them; they compelled them to offer namaz (prayers) and observe roza (fasting). Furthermore, and this is truly appalling, it is alleged that they forcibly fed them beef, the meat of our sacred cow. It is also reported that they made derogatory and obscene remarks about our deities.”
The probe has drawn reactions from other state leaders. On Sunday, BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, urged Telangana DGP B. Shivadhar Reddy to convene an immediate meeting with the heads of major IT companies, especially HR teams.
“After the Nashik corporate jihad case, Telangana cannot sit silent and wait for its turn. Hyderabad has lakhs of IT employees. Their workplace must be for careers, not coercion, harassment, religious targeting, exploitation or secret pressure networks,” he wrote on X.
Telangana BJP spokesperson N.V. Subhash supported Kumar’s tweet and told ThePrint, “The police and the home department have to invite everyone to come forward and report such cases actively. We see so many such cases being reported on social media, and these should be given importance and cannot be ignored.”
Calling it “corporate jihad on our daughters”, Telangana’s Yamuna Pathak Nadimpalli, National Women President of the BJP’s Vishwa Hindu Raksha Parishad (VHRP), told ANI, “It is a direct attack on personal freedom, religious identity and human dignity. This is cultural coercion combined with criminal brutality, and it cannot be tolerated.” She added, “Workplace must also remain safe zones, not breeding grounds for predators and ideological coercion.”
Back home, Cabinet minister Nitesh Rane asked “if these companies are meant to provide employment or ‘do Jihad.” Speaking to reporters on Monday, Rane said, “In our Maharashtra under Deva Bhau (Devendra Fadnavis), any kind of jihad will not be entertained. Wherever this type of jihad is going on in Maharashtra, named ‘corporate jihad’, those people should be very careful, because they will also be stopped anytime.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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