Maharashtra minister Sanjay Shirsat on Friday claimed that AIMIM state president Imtiaz Jaleel had been named a prime accused in a case involving alleged sexual harassment and religious conversion at Tata Consultancy Services’ Nashik office.Jaleel confirmed that he had been made a co-accused but said he was unaware of the charges against him. Shirsat alleged that Jaleel had arranged shelter for key accused Nida Khan and claimed that voice samples collected during the investigation matched recordings linked to the case.“Imtiaz Jaleel is a prime accused in this case.

He has been booked by the Nashik police. He will have to go to jail,” Shirsat said at a press conference.MINISTER ALLEGES ROLE IN SHELTERING ACCUSEDReferring to the arrest of AIMIM corporator Matin Patel from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for allegedly sheltering Khan, Shirsat claimed that Patel was “merely a pawn”. “It has not happened in just a single day.

Nida Khan stayed here for 35 days with relatives. Everything happened on Jaleel’s orders,” he alleged.Responding, Jaleel questioned the minister’s assertion that he would be jailed. “I will have to go to jail if the Guardian Minister is saying so.

But I want to ask whether he will go before me or after me because I have given a lot of evidence against him,” he said.WHAT THE CASE INVOLVESKhan, who worked at TCS in Nashik, is accused of targeting employees in a WhatsApp group and pressuring them to pray and eat non-vegetarian food. According to the FIR, she also allegedly advised women employees to dress and behave in accordance with Islamic traditions.TCS had earlier said it maintained a long-standing zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and coercion.

The company said employees allegedly involved in sexual harassment at its Nashik office had been suspended.- Ends