Legal woes of 26-year-old Nida Khan have just intensified. On Monday, April 20, a court in Nashik loudly denied her interim anticipatory bail. One of the key personalities in the large scale workplace scam in connection with a Tata Consultancy Services BPO office in Nashik is Khan. The accusations against her and her former co-workers are very serious. They include extreme harassment and sexual abuse at the workplace and unbelievable allegations of religious coercion
The defense desperately needed a shield to save Khan, to be arrested at the spot. They failed. Further Sessions Judge K G Joshi heard arguments but ruled that no immediate relief should be given. This ruling leaves the local police at liberty to follow her down and get her on arrest prior to her next court appearance.
The Courtroom Clashes
The hearing on Monday was tense. The legal team of Khan, headed by advocates Rahul Kasliwal and Baba Sayyed, made their defense very much based on her medical condition. The court was informed by them that she is pregnant. They claimed that this medical fact alone ought to be sufficient grounds in order to protect her temporarily against a trip to the jail. Sayyed had even testified in court that his client did not intend to surrender until the next scheduled hearing
But the prosecution resisted vigorously. Kiran Bandbhar, the public prosecutor of the Special Investigation Team, claimed that the case is very sensitive. He highlighted the huge physical and psychological torture of a long period to the complainant. The victim was defended by Milind Kurkute who asked the judge not to issue any protection orders until he reviewed their written objections.
The prosecution was correct in the opinion of the court. The judge sent official notices to the investigating officer and the lawyer of the complainant instead of giving a free pass to Khan. He requested them to provide their official written statements. The last battle concerning the anticipatory bail plea is now fixed on April 27. Up to that point, Khan lacks any legal protection by the law enforcement.
Hunt and Suspension and the Police Hunt.
Nida Khan is now a fugitive. She is the sole charged individual in the whole scandal who is yet to be apprehended. The Nashik police even deployed three separate teams to the extent of Mumbai in search of her. They even arrested and interrogated her husband at Mumbra. She had gone to visit some relatives, he said. However, when the police showed up at that address, they found a locked door. Her phone as well as the phones of her family members are all switched off
Her employer, meanwhile, was very strict. Recently, one of the suspsension letters against Khan was leaked to the media. It confirmed that TCS officially suspended her on April 9. The company mentioned a grave issue and her apparent incompetence to report to work. Seven other employees who were related to this BPO facility have been already arrested by the Special Investigation Team including a female operations manager.
The family of Khan has just issued a statement in which it denied the charges. Her father said that the allegations were wholly untrue. According to him, Khan has never even met with the lady who made the first complaint and that she is being wrongly accused.
The Disturbing Allegations
You need to go and see the complaints of the police that this court is being so strict. All the nightmare began to emerge in March. One of the female employees presented appalling details. She claimed that a colleague had seduced her into an intercourse by deceiving her that he would get married to her.
The lid of a far bigger toxic culture at the Nashik facility was torn open by that one complaint. Soon other employees began to tell their own stories. The police had registered several First Information Reports. The charges were a snowball of sexual exploitation, psychological abuse, and then well-orchestrated efforts at religious conversion. Victims alleged that they were targeted and bullied by a team of senior staff members in a systematic manner. It drew a picture of a work place where predators had been able to go on with their activities over the years in which they did not suffer any reprisals at the hands of the human resource department.
An Announcement on the part of the top.
The very magnitude of the scandal had to be addressed by the top echelons of the Tata leadership. Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran was the first to speak on the issue, making a very sharp statement about the colossal failure. He did not mince his words. He characterized the news coming out of the Nashik branch as alarming and most distressing.
As a giant corporation that boasts of its level of ethical standards, this was a huge PR blow. Chandasekaran clarified that the Tata Group has a zero toleration policy towards misconduct or coercion of any kind. To fix the mess, he announced a thorough internal investigation. It is not middle management that is dealing with this probe. Aarthi Subramanian was appointed by the company as its Chief Operating Officer to lead the inquiry herself. The objective will be to find out exactly what transpired, determine how it could have occurred, and name all the single people who created such a hostile workplace.
Backlash in Industry and Waiting till April 27.
Although the Chairman is saying some tough things, the corporate world is slamming the tech giant. The former executives and industry experts are indicating that this is not the fault of a few bad actors. The Nashik incident is a total system failure to them. That a supposed culture of fear and abuse could exist over many years without being noticed indicates that management-to-management and grievance systems were pathetic.
There are critics who state that an apology and internal investigation is not enough at all when the law says that women must be provided with the strictest workplace safety. Pressure is mounting on the company to hold its senior leadership and HR heads responsible of not paying heed to the warning signs.
