TCS case: Male employee ‘forced to wear skull cap, perform Namaz’, says fresh remand plea

Police told a court that four accused in a case at Tata Consultancy Services’ Nashik unit allegedly forced a colleague into religious acts and harassment, as a wider probe into multiple complaints of coercion and misconduct continues

Nashik (Maharashtra): Four accused arrested in the sexual harassment and forcible conversion case at the TCS unit here allegedly forced a 35-year-old male colleague to wear a Muslim religious cap and perform Namaz, police told a court on Friday while seeking their custody. The magistrate’s court remanded Tausif Attar (36), Danish Sheikh (32), Shahrukh Qureshi (34) and Raza Rafiq Memon (35) in fresh police custody till April 29 in the case.

The accused, who were in judicial custody, were arrested afresh by police on April 23 and produced before the court on Friday in the case registered at Mumbainaka police station on the basis of a complaint filed by the male colleague who works as a senior analyst.

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Sheikh and the other three accused were booked under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for outraging religious feelings and criminal intimidation. During the hearing, prosecutors Kiran Bendbhar and Aniket Avhad sought their custody for ten days, citing seriousness of the matter.

As per the complainant, the accused used to target his religious beliefs and make derogatory comments about Hindu deities. On one occasion they forced him to wear a Muslim skull cap and perform Namaz, and its video was shared on a WhatsApp group of employees, the complaint stated. The complainant was also forced to consume non-vegetarian food as part of a conversion attempt, the police told the court.

Further, the accused allegedly made obscene remarks about Hindu women, the complainant’s wife and the couple’s inability to have children, the remand application said. They used their positions to force the complainant to do their work and sent fabricated performance reports to the head office, the police said.

During an altercation, two of the accused once allegedly threw an office table fan at the complainant and issued death threats to him, police said. Their custodial interrogation was required to collect evidence, find accomplices and verify claims of the complainant being given “black magic advice”, said the prosecution.

A Special Investigation Team of police is probing a total of nine cases of alleged sexual exploitation or harassment, attempts of forcible conversion, hurting religious sentiments, molestation, and mental harassment at the software giant’s Nashik BPO unit. Eight employees, including a woman HR manager, have been arrested so far.

TCS stated after the allegations surfaced that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and coercion in any form, and the accused employees were promptly suspended. But the company also said that a preliminary review of systems and records indicated that no complaints of sexual harassment or religious coercion had been received from the Nashik unit through its official POSH or ethics channels.