Daler Mehndi convicted in human trafficking case, gets two-year jail sentence
Daler Mehndi and his brother, Shamsher Singh, were found guilty of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by charging hefty “passage money”.
india Updated: Mar 16, 2018 20:31 IST
Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi was on Friday convicted in a 2003 human trafficking case by a court in Patiala. He was sentenced to two years in jail and was later granted bail.
“I have been granted bail. We will appeal in higher court,” the singer said.
The Patiala police had booked Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Mehndi — who died last year — on a complaint filed by one Bakshish Singh. Around 35 more complaints, levelling charges of fraud against the brothers, came up later.
The complainants had alleged that the Mehandi brothers had taken ‘passage money’ from them to help them migrate to the US illegally, but failed to do so.
It was also alleged that Mehndi brothers had taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during which 10 people were taken to the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally.
Patiala Police had even raided the offices of Daler Mehndi at Connaught Place in New Delhi and seized documents, including the case file of those who had paid the alleged “passage money” to Mehndi brothers.
In 2006, Patiala Police filed two discharge petitions stating Daler Mehndi to be innocent, but the court had upheld that the singer be prosecuted as there was “sufficient evidence against him on the judicial file and scope for further investigation”.
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