A day after arresting Nida Khan in the Nashik TCS sexual harassment and alleged religious conversion case, the Nashik City police on Friday named All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) corporator from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Mateen Patel as an accused for allegedly sheltering Khan while she was absconding and hindering the legal process.

Nasik City Police Commissioner Sandeep Karnik said, “Naregaon (located in Sambhaji Nagar) corporator Mateen Patel has also been made an accused in the case. We will investigate and identify all who have harboured them and hindered the legal process.”

He added that Patel was not arrested, but a notice was issued to him, following which he was allowed to go. Earlier, the prosecution, while opposing Nida Khan’s bail plea, had said that she had played a role in the “religious conversion” of a victim by giving her a burqa, religious books, and installing religious apps on her phone.

Absconding since April 10, Khan was apprehended late Thursday from a two-storey bungalow in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar’s Naregaon area, where she had been staying with four relatives, through a joint operation by the Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Police and Nashik City Police.

Khan, who worked at TCS’s BPO office in Nashik, is one of eight accused named across nine FIRs registered by the Nashik City police between March 26 and April 3 in connection with the alleged sexual harassment and conversion case. Seven others — Danish Sheikh, Shafi Shaikh, Asif Ansari, Tausif Attar, Shahrukh Qureshi, Raza Memon, and Ashwini Chainani — have already been arrested.

Police said technical surveillance helped trace Khan’s location, while her family maintained that they had exhausted all legal options and were expecting her arrest.

“We were trying to avoid her arrest for the primary reason that we knew that she is innocent and secondarily she is pregnant… We tried all legal options and are now resigned to how things go forward,” a family member, requesting anonymity, told The Indian Express.

Police said Khan was found along with her mother, aunt and two male relatives at the bungalow located in the Kausar Park locality. Local residents told reporters they had noticed movement at the house over the past fortnight and believed a family had recently shifted there.

Khan is the only woman accused in the Nashik TCS case and is named in FIR 156, the first complaint registered after the controversy surfaced. She faces charges, including sexual harassment, hurting religious sentiments and offences under multiple sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena minister Sanjay Shirsat Friday alleged that All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leaders helped Khan evade arrest in the case that he described as “corporate jihad”.

Addressing reporters after the arrest, Shirsat targeted former AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel and demanded an inquiry against him.