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Mangaluru: It was a particularly busy night at the Mumbai Naka police station in Nashik. During the intervening night of April 1 and 2, the station registered five First Information Reports (FIRs). These formed part of a larger set of nine complaints filed by eight young women and one man, all employees at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The women alleged sustained sexual harassment by six male colleagues, all of whom are Muslim. They, along with the male employee, also accused the perpetrators of repeatedly “insulting their Hindu religious sentiments”. While most of these complaints concerned incidents from several months or even years ago, the FIRs strangely were all registered in the dead of night.

The six men named in the FIRs are Danish Shaikh, Tausif Attar, Raza Memon, Asif Ansari, Shafi Shaikh, and Shahrukh Qureshi. Two women have been named in the FIR. One of them, Ashwini Chainani, an HR and Operational Manager, is currently in custody. The other, Nida Khan, a process associate, remains at large. 

The accused have mainly been booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita for sexual harassment, hurting religious sentiments and common intention.  

In the rape case against Dhanish Shaikh, the police have now included sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 as according to the police the complainant woman belongs to the SC community.

The starting point for these complaints was an FIR registered on March 26 at 1.01 am. In that case, the complainant alleged that her colleague, Danish Shaikh, had been sexually involved with her under the pretext of marriage, only for her to later discover that Shaikh was already married with two children. The complainant also named Shaikh’s friends, Tausif Attar and Nida Khan, in the FIR. The accusation against Attar involves blackmailing the complainant for sexual favours, while Khan is accused of speaking ill of the Hindu religion.

The complainant claims she had known Shaikh since college and that they had been romantically involved since 2022. According to the complaint, she began socialising with the three accused at work after joining TCS in 2023. In an interview with The Indian Express, the wife of one of the accused claimed that it was a relationship gone wrong between Danish Shaikh and this complainant.

Nida Khan, a 26-year-old process associate, is the only accused currently absconding. Although she was named in an FIR involving sexual abuse, the specific accusations against her are restricted to hurting religious sentiments under Section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS) and common intention under Section 3(5) of the BNS. While Section 299 is non-bailable, it carries a maximum sentence of three years and is triable before a Magistrate. Section 3(5) is not a standalone offence but establishes constructive liability.

For the past two weeks, Khan’s name has been broadcast across TV channels and social media as a “prime accused” and “conspirator” in a “religious conversion” case. However, the FIR attributes a limited role to her. 

One 23-year-old complainant claimed: “Nida and Tausif tried to convince me that the Shivlings Hindus worship are basically male genitals and that worshipping them is obscene.”

Beside this single line, there is no further evidence against her in this FIR or the other eight registered cases.

‘Hindutva organisation’ and undercover police

The Wire attempted to contact the complainants. The parent of one female complainant, a Nashik resident, responded. They claimed that activists from a “Hindutvawadi sangathan” – a Hindutva organisation – helped them approach the police.

“After the first FIR on March 26, I received a call informing me that my daughter and several colleagues were facing difficulties at work. I was advised that a collective complaint should be filed,” the parent said. When asked for details about the organisation, the parent claimed not to remember the name but noted that several karyakartas (activists) accompanied them to the station.

Nashik Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Karnik, claimed that the first complainant was initially fearful.

“We counselled her and assured her of our support. She and others then informed us of more incidents at the workplace.”

Karnik added that between March 26 and April 1, a team of female police officials, including a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), were sent undercover to the TCS office to counsel employees and encourage them to come forward. This led to the lodging of the remaining eight FIRs – information that is notably missing from the official FIR documents.

At least three FIRs contain several lines, reproduced verbatim, accusing the suspects of insulting Hindu deities. For instance, a complaint filed by the male employee on April 2 at 4:16 am reads:

“Tausif Attar and Danish Shaikh would mock my religious beliefs. Is Mahadev really a god? How did Mahadev not know that Parvati created Ganpati?… By saying this, they insulted Parvati and assassinated her character.” In his FIR, he has also claimed that Attar and Danish Shaikh had taken him out for dinner on multiple occasions and forced him to “consume meat”. 

Similar verbatim lines appear in two other complaints attributed to Attar. While similar statements could have been made, the fact that they were allegedly said to different people at different times using the exact same phrasing raises questions.

Advocate Baba Sayyad, representing Nida Khan, argues that workplace conversations have been misconstrued and taken out of context. Khan, who is in her first trimester of pregnancy, has applied for pre-arrest bail, with the hearing scheduled for next week. Her application for interim relief was rejected earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the police have formed multiple teams to track Khan. Sayyad noted that her husband was recently summoned to a Mumbai police station and questioned for several hours.

Social media uproar and unconfirmed media reports have influenced the direction of the investigation. In a press briefing, Commissioner Karnik stated that authorities are investigating potential terror links or the involvement of international organisations. He claimed that the same set of accused are named in different FIRs. “They operated like a gang,” Karnik claimed. 

“We have sent letters to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). We will confirm these allegations once we hear back from them,” he stated.

© The Wire