Why a Nashik court denied bail to a pregnant TCS employee in a complex “conversion” case
3 min readMumbaiUpdated: May 2, 2026 06:46 PM IST
A sessions court in Nashik has rejected the anticipatory bail application of TCS employee Nida Khan, who is named as an accused in one case related to alleged sexual harassment and hurting religious sentiments. Her lawyers are likely to appeal the order in the High Court. The detailed order is yet to be made available.
The court had earlier refused to grant any interim relief to Khan. Khan sought anticipatory bail on grounds that she is pregnant, that the allegations pertain to one case, and that she will cooperate with the police probe. Her lawyers argued that even if the allegations were taken at face value, there was no law in Maharashtra against conversion and at most she could be tried for hurting religious sentiments.
Khan, who worked at TCS’s BPO office in Nashik, is one of eight accused named across nine FIRs registered by Nashik city police between March 26 and April 3 in connection with alleged sexual harassment and religious conversion. She is the only accused yet to be arrested. Other employees namely Danish Sheikh, Shafi Shaikh, Asif Ansari, Tausif Attar, Shahrukh Qureshi, Raza Memon and Ashwini Chainani, have all been taken into custody.
The case came to light in February when a local political party worker approached Nashik police alleging that a Hindu woman working at the BPO had been influenced to follow Islamic practices at her workplace. Police deployed constables as undercover housekeeping staff inside the 147-employee BPO for several days, which, the police claim, provided the grounds for formal legal action.
The first FIR, registered at Deolali camp police station, alleged rape, hurting religious sentiments and sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Khan is named in this FIR. The prosecution alleged that she played a role in the religious conversion of a victim by giving her a burqa and religious books and installing religious apps on her phone. Police said they seized books from the victim’s residence and found religious apps on her phone that Khan had allegedly helped install, and that her custody was needed to probe her role further.
TCS has said it has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and coercion of any form, and that the employees allegedly involved in sexual harassment at the Nashik office have been suspended. The company has engaged Deloitte and law firm Trilegal as independent counsel for its internal investigation, which is being led by COO Aarthi Subramanian.
