Triggered by the Nashik TCS conversion case, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court of India by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, demanding that forced religious conversion carried out through organised means be legally classified as a 'terrorist act' under criminal law, Bar and Bench reported.
The application points to incident in Nashik where senior employees at a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) office were arrested for allegedly running a coordinated conversion and harassment racket.
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The plea states that "the organized religious conversion in Nasik has shaken the conscience of citizens throughout the country."
Moreover, the application has urged the Central government and states to adopt "stringent steps" against deceitful religious conversions, pressing that such activities be recognised and prosecuted as organised crime posing a direct threat to national security.
The plea has additionally pushed for the creation of dedicated special courts that would deal exclusively with cases stemming from religious conversion, ensuring swifter and more focused judicial proceedings in such matters.
Going further, it calls for a formal judicial declaration affirming that deceitful religious conversion is a danger to the very foundations of India's sovereignty, secularism, and national integrity.
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To bolster its legal standing, the application draws upon the Supreme Court's own words from November 2022, where the apex court had characterised allegations of forced religious conversion as a "very serious issue" — a remark the petitioner now invokes to underscore the urgency and gravity of the present plea.
Earlier, around 120 employees at Tata Consultancy Services' Nashik office have been asked to work from home after operations at the facility were temporarily restricted amid an ongoing police probe.
Senior officials visited the office this week and questioned several employees as part of the inquiry, reports said. According to sources familiar with the matter, fresh complaints surfaced during those interactions, widening the scope of the investigation and prompting the company to take precautionary steps.
All You Need To Know About The Case
The TCS Nashik case has been under scrutiny for days after reportedly nine women employees came forward with allegations of harassment, intimidation and coercion.
Following that, TCS had suspended employees accused in the case and said it was cooperating fully with police, while the company reiterated its zero-tolerance policy on harassment. The allegations against the accused employees included workplace harassment and attempts at religious conversion between February 2022 and March 2026.
A special investigation team was also formed last week and six employees have been arrested so far - Danish Sheikh, Tausif Attar, Raza Memon, Shahrukh Qureshi, Shafi Sheikh, and Asif Aftab Ansari.
HR manager Nida Khan and another woman employee connected to the ones mentioned above are currently missing. Police have also said they are examining witness statements and electronic evidence as part of the wider investigation.
A separate contractual employee at the Nashik office told NDTV: "They used to say, 'Go make Hindu girls your girlfriends and marry them'. They used to say 'convert your religion' and used to talk about their religion. They were also given money. It was ongoing since 2021. The HR madam was also funded."
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Meanwhile, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran has already described the allegations as “gravely concerning and anguishing” and ordered a senior-level investigation.
Earlier reports also suggested that the matter may not be limited to one isolated incident, with police and company investigators looking at a pattern of complaints spanning a longer period.
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