Nashik TCS harassment case: Police issue summons to AIMIM’s Mateen Patel

The high-profile harassment case linked to Tata Consultancy Services’s Nashik BPO unit took a major turn on Monday after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nashik Police summoned Mateen Patel for questioning over his alleged role in assisting one of the key accused.

Police officials said Patel, an AIMIM corporator from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, has been issued summons under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) to help investigators verify “certain facts” connected to the case and his alleged links with accused Nida Khan.

The development comes days after the Nashik Police filed a massive 1,500-page chargesheet in the case on 22 May, marking the first formal prosecution step in a scandal that sparked outrage across Maharashtra over allegations of workplace harassment, sexual assault and religious coercion.

According to officials, the SIT has uncovered evidence suggesting the victim was allegedly subjected to forced religious conversion, an aspect investigators say also hurt religious sentiments.

Police claimed they seized original documents allegedly used to alter the victim’s name and identity, along with digital evidence including WhatsApp chat screenshots recovered from the phones of both the victim and the accused.

The chargesheet names Danish Ejaz Shaikh, Tausif Bilal Attar, Nida Ejaz Khan and AIMIM leader Mateen Patel among the accused. Officials said none of them has been granted bail so far.

The chargesheet was submitted before the Additional Sessions and Special Court at Nashik Road under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The case originally emerged from allegations registered at Deolali Police Station involving rape and offences linked to religious sentiments. Investigators said eight additional FIRs were later filed by TCS employees at Mumbai Naka Police Station, indicating a wider pattern of alleged harassment inside the BPO unit.

The scandal drew statewide attention after claims of systematic abuse and intimidation at the workplace surfaced publicly, prompting demands for strict action.

Officials said the investigation remains ongoing and described the filing of the detailed chargesheet as a crucial milestone that could clear the way for trial proceedings in the coming weeks.

With IANS inputs