Nida Khan moves Nashik court for anticipatory bail
NASHIK, April 19 -- Nida Khan, 26, the allegedly absconding employee of the BPO linked to Tata Consultancy Services in Nashik, moved the Nashik Sessions Court for anticipatory bail on Saturday.
Khan is one of eight accused in the case relating to alleged sexual harassment and religious coercion at the BPO in Nashik. While seven of the accused have been arrested, Khan eludes law-enforcement authorities, although her family says she is not absconding. All eight employees have been suspended.
Nida's defence lawyers, Rahul Kasliwal and Baba Sayyed, said the court is expected to take up Khan's anticipatory bail application for hearing on Monday.
"She has been falsely implicated in the case. She does not have any record of any kind of criminal activity," said Kasliwal.
The Nashik city police have registered nine FIRs against eight employees of the TCS-linked BPO, including one FIR against Khan. The FIRs were registered in Nashik between March 26 and April 3, following complaints from nine employees, who accused senior colleagues, including team leaders, of alleged sexual abuse, other kinds of harassment and religious coercion.
In the FIR against Khan, registered at the Devlali police station, one of the victims has accused her of hurting religious sentiments, making objectionable comments about a Hindu deity. Although initial media reports had claimed that Khan was the HR manager at the BPO, TCS has since issued a statement saying she did not occupy that post and was a "process associate".
Khan's uncle also told HT on April 17 that after she got married last year, Khan moved to Mumbai in January this year to be with her husband. She had been working at the company's BPO in Malad, in Mumbai, until her suspension on April 9, her uncle claimed, adding that she is pregnant. The police have set up three teams in Mumbai to trace and arrest Khan, whose family insists she is not absconding.
Meanwhile, a four-member fact-finding team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) has started investigations into the high-profile case, which began as an inquiry into workplace misconduct but rapidly expanded in its scope following multiple complaints.
One of the commission's members, Monika Arora, said they would speak to all stakeholders in the case as a part of the investigation. The team is likely to visit the firm's office in Nashik on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the court of additional chief judicial magistrate R C Narwadiya on Saturday extended police custody of accused Raza Memon and Shafi Shaikh till April 20. The judge said case diary and FIR showed progress in investigation.
Police seized Memon's phone and collected the complainant's WhatsApp chats indicating attempts to outrage her modesty through obscene messages. Custody was justified as cyber experts needed to retrieve data from the accused's phone. Assistant public prosecutor Aniket Avhad said five more days' remand was sought as the SIT needed passwords to phones, computers and social media accounts to access emails, chats and messages. The April 2 FIR invoked BNS sections for sexual harassment, outraging modesty and using words or gestures; section 78 stalking was later added for allegedly following the complainant home. The 23-year-old employee alleged physical advances, intrusive questions, body shaming and that Shaikh proposed without consent....
To read the full article or to get the complete feed from this publication, please
Contact Us.