Mika goes into hiding, tries to seek bail

Pop singer Mika Singh, who has been booked on molestation charges on the complaint by ‘‘item girl’’ Rakhi Sawant, has gone into hiding, although the police said his lawyer had approached with a request to grant bail.

Pop singer Mika Singh, who has been booked on molestation charges on the complaint by ‘‘item girl’’ Rakhi Sawant, has gone into hiding, although the police said his lawyer had approached with a request to grant bail.

Sawant, who was in the limelight after she was booked for obscenity at a police fund-raising show in Maharashtra, yesterday alleged she was forcibly kissed by Mika at the latter’s birthday party at a suburban restaurant on Saturday night.

Additional Police Commissioner (West), Bipin Bihari, said Mika’s lawyer approached the police during the day with a request that the pop singer be granted bail. ‘‘I asked him (lawyer) to produce Mika before police first, then we will decide whether to grant him bail or not,’’ Bihari said, adding that as per his information, contrary to media reports, Mika was very much in Mumbai and hiding somewhere to evade arrest.

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Bihari said the police were trying to trace Mika and in the event he was traced, he would be placed under arrest.

Mumbai police sources said there was a clear cut case against Mika since there were enough photographs and video to support Rakhi Sawant’s claim. However, the charges slapped against him under Section 354 of IPC (molestation) and Section 323 of IPC (assault) were bailable offences and Mika’s lawyer could ask the police to grant a bail in this case, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the police at Oshiwara who registered Rakhi Sawant’s complaint, has collected the video footage and still photographs of the party in which the alleged molestation took place, the sources said.

‘‘We are trying to identify people in the footage and who were close to the couple when the alleged incident took place.’’ a senior Oshiwara police station official said.