NASHIK: The police named an AIMIM corporator co-accused for allegedly helping a woman employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) — wanted in a Nashik-based sexual exploitation and “religious harassment” case — and her family secure rented accommodation in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, a day after she was arrested from the city. The Nashik police on Thursday served a notice to AIMIM corporator Mateen Majid Patel and seized his cellphone as part of the probe. Nashik commissioner of police Sandeep Karnik on Friday confirmed that Patel had been made a co-accused for allegedly sheltering the woman employee in a house located in the Naregaon area of Sambhajinagar. The woman, her aunt and two male relatives had allegedly been staying in a secluded house near Kausar Park in Naregaon for the past five days before she was arrested late on Thursday in a joint operation carried out by the Nashik city police and the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city police. Patel, however, denied any wrongdoing. “The family had reached out to seek help in getting a house on rent. I was not aware that the TCS employee was also part of that family. It is wrong to blame me,” he said. Surfacing of the corporator’s name has now triggered a political row. Sambhajinagar district guardian minister and state social welfare minister Sanjay Shirsat accused the AIMIM leadership of harboring and supporting the accused woman. Shirsat alleged that the AIMIM, led by former MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel, backed similar activities in Mumbra, Pune and Nashik, and sought action against him. Responding to the allegations, Jaleel said, “Currently, all the hype about this case is due to the media trial. The defamation is clubbed with some politicians’ ulterior motives. We have full faith in judiciary and investigation being carried out by the Nashik police.”
