Bhubaneswar: A day after a four-member team of Commissionerate Police reached Kolkata to grill singer Sourin Bhatt over the harassment case against him, his family on Thursday accused the woman, who had lodged the compliant, of blackmailing him.
The singer’s family members said that they were aware of their friendship but alleged that the woman was at fault, sources said.
The police team, however, had to return without questioning the singer since he is in Delhi. His family members assured the probe team that Sourin would contact them after returning to Kolkata.
The sources further said that the team led by a lady sub-Inspector (SI) reached the capital city of the neighbouring state by train and raided Sourin’s residence on Wednesday night with the help of a special squad of Kolkata Police. Odisha police had discussed the harassment charges against Sourin with their Kolkata counterparts before the raid.
The earlier attempts to contact him had failed since his phone was found switched off. Police also visited the house he had rented at CDA in Cuttack and served a notice on the landlord.
Notably, a woman had approached Mahila police in Cuttack, alleging that Sourin exploited her on false promise of giving her a break in singing. She also accused the singer of false promises of marriage, cheating, torture and exploitation. The vocalist also extorted Rs 10 lakh from her, she alleged.
While a case has been registered under Sections 376 (sexual assault), 493 (cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage), 341 (wrongfully restrains), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 417 (cheating) and 506 (threat to cause death or grievous hurt), the statements of the complainant has also been recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC.
“We are verifying different places they visited in the past days. The probe is underway and we are trying to collect evidence pertaining to the harassment allegations. The accused had taken a house on rent at Markat Nagar with the purpose of providing accommodation to the woman. He had an office in CDA of the city, which is under investigation,” Cuttack Zone II Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Amitabh Mohapatra had earlier told the media.
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