On 16 April 2026, approximately 50 Tata Consultancy Services employees arrived at the company’s Nashik office in sweltering heat, visibly anxious amid mounting reports that the unit was shutting down. A dozen police officers guarded the gates of Ashoka Business Enclave, and private security personnel screened every visitor entering the compound. Outside, a protest led by Devyani Pharande, a BJP MLA from Nashik (Central), drew a large gathering of women raising slogans against the company.
What had brought one of India’s largest IT companies to this moment was not a boardroom scandal or a financial fraud – it was a pattern of alleged sexual harassment, workplace misconduct, and religious intimidation inside a 5,000 square-foot BPO unit employing roughly 170 people across two shifts, run for a large banking client.
Nine FIRs, Eight Accused
As reported in Moneycontrol, the crisis began with a single complaint filed on March 25 by a 23-year-old woman at the Deolali Camp police station in Nashik. The FIR named Danish Sheikh, Tausif Attar, and Nida Khan, alleging rape, sexual harassment, and religious coercion between 2022 and 2026. Eight more FIRs were subsequently registered at Mumbai Naka police station by early April.
Across the nine complaints, eight filed by women and one by a male employee, the key accused are: Danish Sheikh (named in two FIRs), Tausif Attar (six FIRs), Shafi Shaikh (four FIRs), Raza Memon (five FIRs), Shahrukh Qureshi (four FIRs), Asif Ansari (two FIRs), Nida Khan (one FIR), and Ashwini Chainani (one FIR). Most of the women targeted were aged between 23 and 25, came from economically weaker backgrounds, and were working in associate-level roles. Two complainants are in their mid-30s.
Nashik Police moved swiftly, constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Assistant Police Commissioner (Crime) Sandeep Mitke. “After the first complaint, we sent a group of female police officers to get in touch with other women employees in the office to encourage them to come forward and file complaints. That led to nine FIRs getting registered,” Mitke told Moneycontrol.
What the FIRs Say: A Pattern of Intrusion
According to the FIRs accessed, a common thread of alleged harassment ran through multiple complaints – accused employees repeatedly asked women intrusive questions about their private lives, even after they had made clear they did not want to answer.
One complainant described how Shafi Shaikh had allegedly sat next to her on the pretext of helping with her work. “He deliberately tried to rub my feet with his feet. He also touched my chest with his hands on the pretext of using the keyboard. I understood his intention, and when I immediately moved my chair aside, he smiled at me and left from there,” she stated in her FIR, referring to an incident in December 2024.
Another complainant recounted how Tausif Attar approached her during lunchtime in February 2026 after she had suffered a miscarriage. “Tausif said, ‘I will give you the mobile number of a cleric in Ajmer. I assure you that after going to Ajmer, you will have a child. You should go there once.’ I found it embarrassing for him to talk about my personal life in this way, so I did not respond at the time. But he has repeatedly tried to discuss this subject even when I did not want to,” she said in her FIR.
A third complainant, who got married in 2025, described an incident on March 19, Gudi Padwa, when she had come to the office wearing a saree. “Shahrukh came and sat next to me, looked at me strangely and said, ‘Today you look different, let’s go out somewhere today?’ I felt uncomfortable listening to his words. I got up and left from there,” she stated. She had verbally raised concerns about Shahrukh and team leader Raza Memon with operations head Ashwini Chainani in February and March 2026. According to her FIR, Chainani told her: “Why do you want to get highlighted? Let it go.”
Other incidents cited in the FIRs include accused employees asking women whether they had physical relationships with their boyfriends, asking a married woman whether she was going on a honeymoon, making comments about a colleague’s Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD), and telling another complainant to “work on her body and lose weight.”
The First Complainant: A Four-Year Arc
The case that triggered the cascade of FIRs involves the 23-year-old who filed her complaint on March 25. According to the FIR, she had known Danish Sheikh since January 2022 – he was a college senior, and they met as friends. In mid-2022, Danish allegedly tried to get physically intimate with her on the pretext of marriage; she resisted. After she graduated with a BCA degree that year, Danish suggested she apply to TCS, where he was already working. She was hired as an associate in 2023.
At the office, the complainant began spending time with Danish, Tausif, and Nida Khan at the canteen. The four shared a WhatsApp group where, according to the FIR, Tausif and Nida would discuss the differences between Hinduism and Islam and try to convince her that their religion was superior. Danish also allegedly made repeated remarks hurting her religious sentiments.
The allegations escalated in August 2024, when Danish took her on a bike ride to a resort on Trimbak Road in Nashik and allegedly forced her to have sex with him. Following this, Tausif allegedly began blackmailing her – threatening to tell her family about the relationship if she resisted his advances.
In February 2026, Danish’s wife reached out to the complainant directly, revealing that Danish was already married and had two children. When confronted, Danish said he had never intended to marry her. The FIR was registered on March 25.
The Male Complainant and Religious Coercion Allegations
While nationwide commentary quickly framed the case as one of forced religious conversion, eight of the nine FIRs cite instances of hurting religious sentiments – not forced conversion. The sole exception involves a 35-year-old male employee who describes himself as a rudraksh-wearing follower of Hindu saint Ramdas Swami.
According to his FIR, his team leader Tausif took him home during Ramzan Eid in 2023, made him wear a religious cap, and compelled him to recite namaz. A photograph was taken and posted in a WhatsApp group without his consent. The FIR alleges that Danish and Tausif repeatedly insulted Hindu gods and, in one instance, called Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj a “slave of Muslim religion.”
The complainant also alleged in the FIR that Tausif and Danish had told him: “You tried taking medicine, yet your wife did not have a child, so send her to me.” He said the two had threatened to kill him following an argument. He alleged that their harassment intensified specifically because he refused to engage with their religious arguments or consider conversion.
Nashik Police Commissioner Sandeep Karnik confirmed that his team has written to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), and the State Intelligence Department (SID) to examine whether any extremist organisations were linked to the accused.
Nida Khan, a telecaller and process associate based in Pune who faces allegations of hurting religious sentiments, is currently absconding. Nashik Police has dispatched three search teams to locate her. Her lawyers, Rahul Kasliwal and Baba Sayyed, filed an anticipatory bail plea at Nashik Sessions Court on Saturday.
The POSH Failure: Chainani, the Committee Member Who Didn’t Act
At the centre of the institutional failure is Ashwini Chainani, the delivery operations head based in TCS’s Pune office, who was responsible for overseeing the Nashik unit. Chainani has been a TCS employee for over 20 years, having led numerous projects and teams. She would visit the Nashik office once a month or as needed.
Critically, public prosecutor Kiran Bendbhar, who is representing eight of the nine complainants, told Moneycontrol that Chainani was a member of TCS’s Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) committee. Yet, despite receiving verbal complaints from employees and written communications from senior manager Nitin Kapoor, she allegedly took no action.
SIT head Mitke confirmed that around 78 emails sent from Kapoor to Chainani, about the accused group’s work discipline, are now under police investigation. “Nitin Kapoor did write to Chainani regarding work disciplinary issues of the accused gang. They would come to the office late, and their work wasn’t up to the mark. They would even bully colleagues. But Chainani didn’t take any action,” Mitke said.
Back in 2022, when one complainant emailed Kapoor alleging that Shafi Shaikh had stared at her inappropriately, Kapoor’s response was to shift Shafi to another department – a move that kept him employed and ultimately, the complainants say, gave him continued access to female colleagues.
Bendbhar said the accused had continued their conduct unchecked for four years. “Women have been facing these issues from 2022 to 2026. To continue in their jobs, they were avoiding filing complaints. Many of them are from poorer families. But now that these cases are in the court, we expect more victims to come forward and file formal complaints,” he said.
Mitke echoed the assessment. “The victims were scared because none of the managers they had been verbally raising complaints with took any action,” he said.
Chainani’s lawyer, Advocate Mayur Deshpande, denied all allegations on her behalf. He told this reporter that she never received a complaint from the subordinate in question and maintained that the 78 emails under investigation were entirely “work related” and not directly linked to sexual harassment complaints.
Deshpande noted that Chainani had already been in the process of transitioning away from the project since September 2025, following disagreements with colleagues, and that March 2026 was meant to be her last month. “She was called for questioning by the SIT between March 29 and 31. She travelled to the Nashik office, recorded her statement and came back. Suddenly, her name came up in a FIR filed on April 2, and she was taken into police custody. The complainant could have mentioned this while the SIT was speaking to employees during their visit in March end. It’s shocking that she suddenly lodged a complaint,” Deshpande said.
Chainani has been moved to judicial custody until 28 April 2026. The SIT has also reserved the right to take her back into police custody for up to 10 days until 19 May 2026, as required for the investigation. The remaining accused continue to be in police custody.
A Company That Says It Didn’t Know
On 17 April 2026, TCS CEO and Managing Director K Krithivasan stated that the company had not received any formal complaints through its POSH or ethics channels over the past four years pertaining to the Nashik unit. “While detailed reviews are still underway, a preliminary review of the systems and records pertaining to the Nashik unit indicates that we have not received any complaints of the nature that are being alleged on either our ethics or POSH channels,” he said. TCS added that it holds itself to the “highest standards of employee welfare and institutional conduct.”
In response to detailed queries by this reporter, a TCS spokesperson said: “We wish to reiterate the statement issued concerning the matter on 17 April 2025. We are constrained on offering comments on specific queries as these are matters of present investigation.” The spokesperson also urged caution: “We will also request you to exercise caution and diligence in reporting on these matters rather than depending on hearsay as advised by the investigating authorities in their social media post.”
TCS has since hired Deloitte and Trilegal as independent advisors to support an internal investigation being overseen by Aarthi Subramanian, President and Chief Operating Officer of TCS. An Oversight Committee has also been constituted, chaired by independent director Keki Mistry, to review findings and recommend further action.
The HR Gap Nobody Can Explain
One question that remains unanswered is: who was the HR head of the Nashik unit? Despite the scale of the investigation and the involvement of senior management, the identity and role of the Nashik facility’s HR leadership remain unclear. TCS has a common POSH committee for its Pune and Nashik offices, sources said – which raises further questions about how systemic failures persisted across both locations for years.
The Defence: An Affair Gone Wrong?
Advocate Rahul Kasliwal, who represents Nida Khan, Raza Memon, Tausif Attar, and Asif Ansari, argued that the remand reports by police do not indicate any forceful conversion. “TCS is a reputed company and hires people after thorough verifications. These victims and the accused are all well-educated and qualified. If this is a caste or religion issue, then I don’t think the victim would have taken three years to lodge a complaint. One of the accused had an affair with a girl. But just because they are from different religions, we can’t say the victim was forced to convert,” he said.
Kasliwal also argued that voluntary religious conversion, if it occurred, remains a legal right, and that opposing a religion does not amount to asking another person to convert. He contended that all allegations relate to individual conduct rather than to the company, and that the appropriateness of the behaviour depends on the relationship between parties and the intent behind each act. He also noted that the offences in question carry sentences of under seven years and, citing Supreme Court precedent, argued that they do not necessarily warrant immediate arrest.
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