Pop singer Daler Mehndi gets two-year jail term – Here’s why

NEW DELHI:  Famed Indian pop singer Daler Mehndi has been sentenced to two years in prison after he was convicted in a 2003 human trafficking case by a court in New Delhi today, according to Indian news agency ANI.

Mehndi was reportedly taken into custody by the Punjab Police as soon as his conviction was announced.

But soon after his conviction on Friday (March 15), Mehndi approached the local court and he was granted bail, according to Economic Times.

Daler Mehndi, 50, and his brother, Shamsher Singh, had been accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by charging hefty “passage money.”

Daler Mehndi had a massive following in the late nineties and early 2000s for his pop songs, including the hit numbers “Tunak Tunak Tun”, “Bolo Ta Ra Ra” and “Saade Naal Rahoge Toh…”.

The Mehndi brothers had allegedly taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during the course of which 10 persons were taken to the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally.

Daler Mehndi, on a trip to the US in the company of an actress had allegedly “dropped off” three girls at San Francisco.

Both brothers took another troupe to the US in October 1999 in the company of some other actors during which three boys were “dropped off” at New Jersey, the reports said here.

Soon after the Police in Patiala registered a case against Daler Mehndi and Shamsher Singh, 35 more complaints came up levelling charges of fraud against the two brothers.

The complaints had alleged that two brothers had taken “passage money” from them to help them migrate to the US “illegally”, but had failed to do so.

In 2006, Police had filed two 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”.