Recently, a case of love jihad, religious conversion, physical exploitation, and mental harassment has come to light at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in Nashik, Maharashtra. Nine Muslims working at the company were allegedly pressuring colleagues to convert to Islam through misconduct, resulting in nine FIRs being filed. Journalist Subhi Vishwakarma, who covered the case in depth, spoke to The Dossier, revealing hidden aspects of the case and asserting that love jihad in India is not a myth but a bitter reality that must be addressed urgently.
S Shiva – From where did you first learn about this case and who were the people involved in this case?
Subhi Vishwakarma – I came to know about this case through an X handle called Legal Rights Observatory. Almost no media outlet had covered it then. Nobody had any idea about where the incident occurred.
A total of nine people were victimised — eight women (two married, six unmarried) and one man. All nine complained that Danish Sheikh, Tausif Atar, Raza Memon, Shahrukh Qureshi, Asif Ansari, Saifi Shafi Sheikh, and a woman named Nida Khan pressured them to convert to Islam, harassed them at work, and subjected them to physical and mental abuse.
A male employee was being pressured to convert to Islam by exploiting his family troubles. The first FIR in this case was filed on March 26, when a Dalit woman filed a complaint with police. Between March 26 and April 3, nine FIRs were registered — one at Deolali Police Station and eight at Mumbai Naka Police Station. No sections related to anti-conversion law have been applied so far. The Dalit woman’s FIR also includes the SC/ST Act. Various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita have been added to the remaining FIRs.
The people involved in this were all educated—engineering background, intellectual people—from whom this was least expected. Usually, such things were seen only in remote areas.
S Shiva – What steps have the police taken in this matter and what was the procedure used to approach and influence the Hindu women?
Subhi Vishwakarma – Six people have been arrested so far. One accused, Nida Khan, is still absconding. Police have formed an SIT, and the NIA is also investigating the case. The Dalit woman suffered the most in this entire matter, as she was also sexually harassed.
A boy named Danish had met this woman during college. One day, they ran into each other in the Deolali Camp area, resumed contact, and Danish promised to get her a job at the company. He touched her without her consent and kissed her. He then arranged her interview and got her hired. After joining the company, the woman spent time with Danish, Nida, and others. They would make derogatory remarks about her religion — saying things like “Does Mahadev really exist?”, “Krishna was a womanizer,” calling Draupadi cheap, and questioning how Ganesha could be Shiva’s son. In this way, they pressured her to convert to Islam.
The woman became so influenced by Danish and the other Muslim colleagues that she started isolating herself at home. The woman, who was open-minded and dressed freely, began wearing full-sleeve clothes, started wearing hijab, made excuses not to eat at home during Ramadan, locked herself in her room, and stopped wearing lipstick and bindi. A friend noticed these changes and informed her family. When confronted by her family, she called them kafirs and declared Allah the only God. Videos of namaz prayers were found on her phone, sent by Danish’s wife Mahreen.
S Shiva – Is this an entire group that carries out conversions together?
Subhi Vishwakarma – Yes, Mahreen, Danish, and others used to show the Dalit woman videos of women living in Arab countries, saying “you will live this kind of life if you accept Islam.” An amount of Rs 18 lakh was also deposited into the woman’s account. Among the victims is a woman aged between 23–35 who has worked in the IT sector for 11 years and at the Nashik branch for 7 years.
Muslim colleagues at the company would repeatedly comment on their clothes, their bodies, stare at their chest area, and wink inappropriately. Even when they complained, no one listened. The company’s HR manager, Ashwini, also supported these accused. A full network was operating in this case.
Isha – Did police investigations reveal who was providing the money?
Subhi Vishwakarma – Nobody knows where that money came from yet. Perhaps that is why the NIA has been brought into the case — to investigate angles including terror funding and human trafficking.
Isha – What is happening with the arrested accused? Is there anything unusual that you find while reporting on this case?
Subhi Vishwakarma – Six or seven people have been arrested so far. Six are in judicial custody and have been sent to jail. One is in police custody. An SIT has been formed to find Nida, who is likely hiding somewhere in a densely populated Muslim area. Their lawyers have not come forward yet. They will remain in police remand for 15 days, after which the court will decide further.
One notable detail: when they were arrested, the amount offered for anticipatory bail ran into lakhs of rupees. Arranging such a large sum so quickly for eight accused is significant — no ordinary family could manage that so fast.
Isha – How does this case compare to other similar cases you have covered earlier?
Subhi Vishwakarma – In the conversion cases I had seen earlier, the people involved were mostly less educated. I have seen for the first time such a case involving highly educated people in such a large company. However, a similar case in Faridabad involved an entire gang of doctors.
There was also the case of Saurabh Jain from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, who converted and became Mohammad Salim Jain. He was the son of Ayurvedic doctor Dr. Ashok Kumar Jain, and his Muslim friend brainwashed and converted him similarly. His wife Mansi also adopted Islam along with him. Saurabh went on to convert over 100 people in his career and repeatedly pressured his own parents to change their religion.
But ultimately, whether professors, doctors, or engineers — none of them have a final goal other than jihad. All of them are working with this same motive.
In another case, an accused named Rashid groomed a 17-year-old girl from UP, married her at an Arya Samaj temple, then took her to Surat where he performed a nikah. He forced three abortions on her, and after all this told her: “Converting a kafir to Islam earns the merit of one Haj.” That is why he did it.
Isha – Left-wing journalists in India often call love jihad and such conversion cases false and always put Hindus in the dock. What do you want to say about this?
Subhi Vishwakarma – It’s exactly like saying terrorism has no religion. So many incidents are happening one after another, and yet if left-wing people cannot see the truth, they will only believe love jihad is real when such an incident happens to someone in their own family. Also, it is in this context that people like Srinivasan Jain publish books calling love jihad a fiction. However, data says otherwise.
Isha – You have covered more than 300 cases of love jihad. How effective do you think the steps taken by the central or state governments have been? Nobody ever finds out what punishment those arrested in such cases received or how far their cases progressed.
Subhi Vishwakarma – Absolutely. So far, 12 states have implemented anti-conversion law or Freedom of Religion law. Maharashtra has done so just recently. In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh, punishment of up to 10 years is provisioned, along with fines ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The conviction rate is low for a major reason: the accused are arrested under bailable sections, so they are released within two or three years and begin threatening the women again.
Second, in these cases, the woman often runs away from home. After that, she has almost no connection with her family, cannot hold a job, and loses contact with relatives. Gradually all relationships break down. She cannot stand on her own feet. How will she fight a case? She doesn’t even have Rs 500 to pay a lawyer. Sometimes NGOs provide support.
Third, in many such cases, out-of-court settlements happen because the woman has no other option. She is forced to accept whatever situation she is in — whether as a second, third, or fourth wife.
S Shiva – How can improvement be made in such cases?
Subhi Vishwakarma – We must provide legal aid to girls. Otherwise, the kind of videos we see from Pakistan — where girls are dragged away and converted right in front of their parents in court — we will start seeing those cases in India too. Centers should be created for women victimized in such cases, where they can come and stay. In many cases, police cannot even reach the girls. And it is precisely through such entrapments that a demographic shift is being engineered.
