Mumbai:
The police shunned their khaki and their jeeps and scattered across a neighbourhood where they believed Nida Khan had been hiding to evade arrest in the Nashik TCS ‘conversion’ case. The cops moved slowly but confidently, armed with a carefully planned strategy, and eventually zeroed in on the main suspect in the case.
Khan had been on the run since the forced conversion case came to light. The police have been on a relentless pursuit ever since. But success remained elusive till the first week of May.
Then came a tip-off that she had been hiding in a rented flat in the Kaiser Colony in the Naregaon area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. There were strong inputs that she had been staying there for the past three to four days. She wasn’t alone. Her father, mother, brother, and a maternal aunt were also present with her.
Read: Nida Khan, Key Accused In TCS ‘Conversion’ Case, Arrested In Maharashtra
But the police wanted to be sure. They used technical analysis and location tracking to confirm her presence in the Naregaon area.
Then kicked in a rare police tactic. They knew this was the moment they had been waiting for. But still, they waited. The police started continuous surveillance over the area for three to four days before they moved on with the arrest process.
To avoid attention, they decided to blend into the crowd. More than 20 police personnel were deployed within the premises where Nida Khan was staying as well as in the surrounding vicinity. They shunned their uniform; they wore plain clothes and did not use police jeeps to ensure that the locals didn’t get a whiff of a police operation.
Photo Credit: AI Generated via ChatGPT
Khan had reportedly been seeking legal counsel from some lawyers in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Preparations were underway to file a bail application in the High Court as well. The police swooped in and took her into custody before the application could be filed.
Following her arrest, Nida Khan was produced late last night before a judge at the judicial officer’s official residence at Sutgirni Chowk. The Nashik Police obtained a transit remand and departed for Nashik in a special vehicle with her for further investigation.
Sources said a total of five other individuals were present with her when she was arrested.
Read: Burqa, Malaysia: Fresh Details On How Accused Tried To Convert TCS Staff
Khan is accused of forcing several employees at the Nashik office of the IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to convert their religion. A ‘process associate’ at TCS since 2021, she was suspended last month after being charged.
The investigation has so far found that she had sent Islamic religious content, including books and videos, to survivors in an attempt to influence them, as part of what is being suspected to be a racket that involved several other employees at her office.
She had sought an interim protection from arrest last month, claiming that she was pregnant. But the court denied.
Khan is the eighth accused arrested in the case; the other seven were caught at the earlier stages of the investigation.
(With inputs by Mohsin Sheikh)