Daler Mehndi jailed for 2 years in 2003 human trafficking case

PATIALA: Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi has been sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a 2003 human trafficking case after a Patiala District Court dismissed the singer’s appeal.

The renowned singer was earlier sentenced in 2018, but he was released on bail. Additional district and session judge HS Grewal dismissed the singer’s appeal against conviction and upheld the decision of lower court that had held Mehndi guilty under Section 420 (cheating) and 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

The trial court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment and also imposed a fine of INR 2,000 in the human trafficking case. After the additional district sessions judge dismissed Mehndi’s appeal, he was taken into custody.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Patiala police had booked Daler and his brother Shamsher Mehndi, who died in 2017, and two others on a complaint filed by Bakshish Singh of Balbera village.

Bakshish alleged that Mehndi took INR12 lakh to send him to Canada. Thirty-five more complaints, levelling charges of fraud against the brothers, came up later.

While Shamsher and Dhian Singh died during trial, Bulbul Mehta, an employee of Mehndi firm, was acquitted for lack of evidence. The complainants had alleged that the Mehndi brothers had taken money from them to help them migrate to the US illegally, but failed to do so.

It was also alleged that the 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.

In 2006, Patiala police filed two discharge petitions stating Daler to be innocent, but the court upheld that the singer be prosecuted as there was “sufficient evidence against him on the judicial file and scope for further investigation”.