Harassment Case: Odisha Police To Freeze Bank Accounts Of ‘Absconding’ Singer Sourin Bhatt

Cuttack: A day after issuing a lookout circular against playback singer Sourin Bhatt, the Commissionerate Police, which is searching for him in a sexual harassment case, on Tuesday wrote to the bank authorities to freeze his two accounts.

“It will be done within 2-3 days. This step was initiated to pressurise him to surrender before the police. We are also in touch with our Kolkata counterparts. The cops are trying to know his whereabouts,” Cuttack Zone-II ACP Amitabh Mohapatra said adding the singer has been absconding since the Orissa High Court vacated the interim protection granted to him.

The 42-year-old is an established playback singer in Bollywood and Odia film industry.

Cuttack Mahila police station had formed a special team to arrest Sourin after the High Court of Orissa rejected his anticipatory bail.  On Monday, Cuttack DCP told the media that the singer was served several notices to depose before the investigation officer, but he kept avoiding them and did not cooperate. A police team also failed to trace him after searches at three places in Kolkata, his native place. “The lookout circular was issued to prevent him from travelling abroad,” the DCP added.

Notably, a case was registered against him on the basis of a complaint lodged by a woman, a resident of Cuttack city who works in a private bank, at Mahila police station here on June 12, accusing him of false promises of marriage, cheating, torture and exploitation. She also accused the vocalist of having taken Rs 10 lakh from her.

On June 26, the singer filed the anticipatory bail petition in the HC fearing arrest. The court initially granted him interim protection but later rejected his plea. “This court does not find the case to be fit for grant of pre-arrest bail. Keeping in view the nature of allegations as emerged from the materials on record, the circumstances appearing, the seriousness and gravity of the offences, this court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail to the petitioner. The prayer for bail accordingly stands rejected,” the order read.

The HC also directed him to cooperate in the police investigation whenever required.