In a small room overlooking the District and Sessions Court in Nashik, Baba Syed, 57, and Rahul Kasliwal, 45, grapple with the most high-profile case of their careers. The two lawyers, partners and close friends of 25 years, are representing all but two accused in the TCS BPO case where eight employees – six men and two women – were variously booked on charges of rape, molestation, molestation and religious coercion. With the exception of one of them, Nida Khan, 26 years old, the rest of the accused are in prison.
The case, which was first reported by the media on April 9, has rocked the city of Nashik, casting doubt on one of the country’s largest IT companies, and raising questions about media excesses, HR correction mechanisms, and the investigation itself.
What TCS said
In an April 17 statement, TCS CEO and CEO Krithivasan said, “TCS is committed to the highest standards of employee care and corporate conduct. We remain fully committed to the safety, dignity and well-being of every employee… We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of coercion or misconduct. We are focused on supporting our employees and ensuring a safe and respectful workplace at all our locations. We continue to provide full cooperation with law enforcement agencies until the matter is resolved.” “It was investigated comprehensively and transparently and a correct conclusion was reached.”
Origins
It seems that the case began with a love affair that went bad. On March 26, four days after Eid, the family of a 23-year-old employee of TCS BPO approached Devlali police station to complain that she had started fasting during Ramadan and had taken to wearing a hijab, causing panic and upset within the observant Hindu family. Her relatives told police that when they confronted her, the woman admitted that she loved her BPO colleague, Danish Sheikh, 31, and that he had promised to marry her.
Nashik Police Commissioner Sandeep Karnik was quick to gauge the importance of the complaint and act. “Since she was afraid to file a complaint, our team reached out to her and gave her the courage to do so,” Karnik told HT.
Fees
Sheikh has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections including Section 69 (sexual intercourse obtained by false promise of marriage), 75 (sexual harassment), 299 (insulting religion or religious belief), and 3(5) (constructive or joint liability).
The woman said in her complaint that in February she received a letter from a woman named Mehreen who identified herself as Danish’s wife and said that the couple had two children. When the woman confronted Danish, he told her that he was never interested in marrying her. It is not clear why the woman did not go to the police immediately and instead began fasting during Ramadan.
Just a week before the woman’s complaint, the Nashik Police Commissioner made headlines with the arrest of politically influential cleric Ashok Kharat in a rape case. Within three days of Kharrat’s arrest, CM Devendra Fadnavis set up a special investigation committee under SRF commander Tejaswi Satpute, and transferred all investigations related to Kharrat to it.
Taking this into consideration, Karnik also set up a SIT under the supervision of ACP Sandeep Mitke. They decide to send undercover agents to investigate the alleged events at the BPO. Nashik city police officers told the media, including this newspaper, that a team of six female officers was sent to the Business Probation Office (BPO) posing as housekeeping staff through a third-party vendor without informing TCS authorities.
The BPO was a ‘high security area’
However, people familiar with the matter at the BPO told HT that the BPO is a “high-security area” and can only be entered through an access card, which has to be swiped twice: once to enter the lobby, common areas etc, and again to enter the Outside Delivery Center (ODC) where most of the accused and complainants work. This area is divided from the rest of the office by frosted glass doors. Access to it was given only to people who worked at ODC. “It’s hard to understand how undercover police officers got into the ODC,” one person said, adding that any housekeeping and cleaning staff would likely be able to get in when the ODC is relatively empty between shifts.
When contacted about the police account of undercover agents, a TCS spokesperson said they were “restricted in providing comments on specific inquiries as these are matters under current investigation”.
The BPO employs about 170 people. Within a week of the first FIR, the police lodged eight more against seven employees, arresting six of them. Among them were two team leaders, Tauseef Bilal Attar, 37, and Raza Memon, 35. Two others were arrested: Shafi Sheikh, 36, a business operations analyst, and Shahrukh Hussain Qureshi, 34, an assistant. All of them had been working at TCS since 2017. Ashwini Chainani, 52, a senior official based in Pune, was arrested on April 10. The other accused, Nida Khan, who joined in 2021, is on the run. Her anticipatory bail plea will be heard on April 27.
Both Chainani and Khan have been widely described as HR people, which is not the case. Nashik BPO has a full time HR Director.
No luxury complaints?
The big question remains: What changed at the BPO between 2022 and March 2026 – when the alleged harassment incidents occurred – given that many of the accused have been working there since 2017?
According to people familiar with the facility, the office is an open-plan workspace with common areas under CCTV surveillance, although the main delivery center does not have cameras due to data privacy concerns. Employees deposit their phones before entering. “It would be difficult to overlook misconduct in a situation like this,” one person said.
Police allege that despite working in different teams and shifts, the accused acted in concert to create an environment of coercion and harassment, and complaints were not addressed. One unaddressed complaint led to Chainani’s arrest.
To add to Chainani’s woes, TCS in its statement made it clear that Nida Khan was a junior employee and was not part of the HR department, but did not mention Chainani. Her lawyer, Mayur Deshpande, refers to the company’s statement that it has not received any complaints under POSH to defend his client. One of the complainants in her statement to the police said that she had informed two of her superiors at Nashik BPO about the harassment before verbally mentioning it to Chinnani. “These two individuals have not been charged,” Deshpande noted. When asked about Chainani’s role, a TCS spokesperson offered no comment and reiterated an April 17 statement that said it had engaged Deloitte and law firm Trilegal to support an internal investigation. People familiar with the matter at BPO told HT that the company has clarified Nida Khan’s position over the attacks on her, and that deleting Chainani’s name does not mean she is guilty.
In her statement before the special court on March 31, days before her arrest, Chainani told police that after Danish Sheikh’s arrest, she encouraged women at the Women’s Protection Bureau to speak to the police freely.
What do FIRs say?
In seven of the nine FIRs, the complainants were junior employees between 23 and 25 years of age; In the eighth case, the complainant is a 36-year-old Hindu woman, a senior employee. As part of her complaint, she alleged that one of the accused asked her to call Maulvi in Ajmer for help when they were discussing her childlessness, a comment that made her “feel very uncomfortable”.
Most of the complainants alleged that these incidents of harassment occurred between 2022 and March 2026. The charges range from the accused men asking them questions about their personal lives, making inappropriate and degrading comments about their bodies, staring at them with “bad intent,” using sexual innuendos in conversations, and in some cases touching them inappropriately. Many of them said that men made them feel uncomfortable by commenting on their clothes when they came to the office wearing sarees or new clothes. for Gudi Padwa (Maharashtra New Year) on March 19, a week before the first FIR was registered against Danish Shaikh and two others.
One of the complainants, 25, told police that one of the accused, Tauseef Al-Attar, was in the habit of making sexually charged remarks. “But since our elders did not take any action against him, I was sure that even if I complained no action would be taken.”
“The complainants came from humble homes. They were afraid of losing their jobs if they complained,” said an SIT officer. In addition to the sexual harassment allegations, three of the women told police that the accused men and Nida Khan made offensive comments about Hindu gods and Maratha king Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.
The only male complainant, 36, is a senior analyst who joined TCS in 2022. He alleged that on Eid 2023, Tauseef Attar, who was then his team leader, took him home and forcefully forced him to wear their “religious cover”. However, the alleged video of the same event reviewed by HT, shows the two men conversing cheerfully, hugging and posing for photos immediately after Tausif placed a hood on the complainant’s head. The complainant also alleged that he was forced to eat non-vegetarian food whenever they went out even though the accused knew that he was a vegetarian. On one occasion, four accused men forced him to recite the Kalima (a basic doctrine declaring the oneness of God) on his desk, he says in the FIR obtained by HT. It’s not clear why he waited so long to file a complaint.
In the FIR, citing incidents that occurred between 2022 and March 2026, the complainant also alleges that Tauseef Attar once threw his phone at him after an argument between them. He claimed that this happened after Tausif made an objectionable comment about the complainant’s wife. The complainant added that Tausif threatened to kill him and that the incident was reported to “Mrs. Ashwini” (Chenani). However, Chainani was not named as an accused in the FIR lodged on his complaint.
The other senior complainant, a 36-year-old woman, told police that after she complained against Shafi Shaikh via email, he was transferred to another department while another complainant, a 25-year-old woman, told police that when she tried to file a complaint against Raza Memon, the team captain, and Shahrukh Qureshi, Ashwini Chainani reportedly told her: “Tumko kyo highlight hona hai, jan do, chud do (why do you want that)” to draw attention so be it.
“Chinani was very friendly with the accused. Whenever she came to Nashik, they would all go out and have lunch and dinner together. She always supported them,” a senior police officer said. However, TCS maintains that as per its internal investigations so far, it has not come across any complaint filed under the POSH Rules.
What makes the Nashik-Bpu case particularly complex is that the FIRs rely not only on cases of sexual harassment, but also on allegations of religious coercion, an incendiary charge in this political environment. In March, days before the Nashik case came to light, the Maharashtra legislature passed a freedom of religion law, called the Love Jihad Act in popular political parlance, which punishes attempts at illegal conversion. The Governor has since sent the bill to the President of India for her assent. Over the past three years, several right-wing organisations, under the banner of the Hindu Sakal Samaj (United Hindu Society), have run a loud campaign in multiple cities against what they call “Love Jihad and Land Jihad”. “Corporate jihad” has now been added to this slogan.
While the TCS BPO issue is still at a preliminary stage, it could resonate widely.
