"Why Be In Spotlight? Drop It": TCS Official To Employee Over Sex Abuse Case

Let it go, a top official at IT giant Tata Consultancy Services, or TCS, counselled a woman employee at its Nashik unit who had levelled allegations of sexual harassment against a senior colleague at workplace.

The survivor, a contractual employee, had joined the Nashik unit three years ago. She complained verbally to the Quality and Training Manager against a certain Raza Memon, the Team Lead of the Loans Branch, claiming that finding her alone in the training room he attempted to get close to her. 

Raza, she claimed, pressured her to keep the matter a secret and began persistently stalking her. He even touched her inappropriately on many occasions, she claimed.

"Raza's character is already questionable. Take care of yourself and don't stay alone," the Training Manager told her.

The Team Leader, too, brushed off the matter by advising her to hang around in a group.

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Upon learning that a complaint had been filed, Raza Menon, acting out of a spirit of revenge, spread false rumours within the office linking the survivor's name to a male colleague, falsely alleging that she was having an affair. 

He also made obscene remarks regarding the complainant's personal life and marriage.

"Why do you need to be in the spotlight? Just let it go - drop it," Ashwini Chainani, the HR head and operations manager of the company, advised her when the survivor approached him with her complaint. 

Chainani is one among the eight people arrested in the case so far.

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The company, India's biggest private-sector employer, maintains that it had not received any complaint through internal channels on the matter, underlining it has a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment. 

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When the woman stopped communicating with Raza, he, along with fellow colleagues, Danish and Tausif, tampered with the office system, adding to her troubles. 

The frequency of calls, which were supposed to arrive every 30 seconds, was increased to once every second, with the aim of overwhelming the complainant with the workload and causing her to suffer a mental breakdown.

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Internal professional rivalry and office politics are the motive for the "false" sexual harassment and conversion allegations levelled against TCS employee Raza Memon, his family said on Sunday, describing him as a "high performer".

An SIT of Nashik Police is probing a total of nine cases registered in connection with the alleged attempts at mental and sexual harassment of female employees at the TCS unit.

(With inputs from Pranjal Kulkarni)