A suspended Tata Consultancy Services employee, Nida Khan, was arrested in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Thursday night, more than 40 days after she was named in a first information report pertaining to hurting religious sentiments.
Khan’s lawyer, Baba Sayyad, said that she was taken into custody after the Nashik sessions court on May 2 denied her anticipatory bail. Khan’s family has said that she is four months pregnant. “Her pregnancy and health condition were not taken into account when her bail plea was rejected,” the lawyer told Scroll.
The police also booked All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen corporator Mateen Majid Patel for allegedly sheltering Khan in the Naregaon area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
The suspended TCS employee has also been named as a co-accused in an alleged rape and sexual exploitation case.
The complainant, a 23-year-old woman, alleged that Khan taught her to recite the kalma – the Islamic declaration of faith – observe the roza fast and change her dressing behaviour, The Hindu reported. As the complainant is a member of the Scheduled Caste community, Khan has also been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Between March 26 and April 3, the Nashik Police filed nine cases against eight Tata Consultancy Services employees for allegedly sexually harassing nine persons and hurting religious sentiments. The other seven TCS employees have also been arrested.
After the matter came to light, TCS suspended all the employees accused of involvement in the case and launched an internal inquiry.
The police have alleged that Khan, along with two others named Danish Sheikh and Tausif Attar, had made derogatory remarks about Hindu deities. They also alleged that Sheikh sexually assaulted the complainant on the pretext of marriage, while Attar molested her by seeking sexual favours and threatening to reveal to her family that she had physical relations at the workplace, The Print reported.
However, the wife of one of the accused persons told The Indian Express that the matter originated from a fallout between Sheikh and the complainant. This led to cases that were not related being clubbed together, she claimed.
While media reports last month claimed that Khan used her position as a member of the human resources team to “entrap” other female employees, her family said that she was not part of the HR department.
Written by Neerad Pandharipande. Edited by Sneha
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