TCS Nashik case: Pregnant employee Nida Khan granted bail in sexual harassment, religious conversion case

A local court on Monday granted bail to TCS employee Nida Khan in one of the alleged cases of sexual harassment and religious conversion at the software company’s Nashik unit in north Maharashtra, two months after her arrest.

However, Additional Sessions Judge (Nashik Road Court) KG Joshi, who granted bail to Khan, denied similar relief to her co-accused Danish Shaikh.

Khan, represented by advocate Rahul Kasliwal, sought bail primarily on the grounds that she is pregnant.

Public prosecutor Vijay Gaikwad along with the victim’s lawyers Milind Kurkut and Nitin Pandit opposed the bail applications of Khan and Shaikh.

Their claim was that during the investigation of the case, evidence of sexual assault and religious coercion came to the fore.

The prosecution said Shaikh gave the victim, an associate, an Islamic book and a burqa with a religious conversion motif.

All these facts indicate that the victim was sexually abused deliberately and efforts were made to convert her religiously, they said.

The prosecution alleged that the accused, despite knowing that the victim was from Scheduled Caste, tried to convert her.

The specific case relates to an FIR registered by the Deolali Camp police station under the provisions of BNS 69 (sexual intercourse by fraudulent means etc.), 65 (sexual harassment) and 299 (outraging religious sentiments).

The duo was also booked under relevant provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nashik police is probing a total of nine cases registered in connection with alleged exploitation, attempted forcible conversion, hurting religious sentiments, harassment and mental harassment of women employees at a TCS unit in the north Maharashtra city.

After the cases came to light, TCS clarified that it has long adopted a zero-tolerance policy against harassment and coercion in any form, and employees allegedly involved in sexual harassment at the Nashik office were suspended.