The Patiala court has reportedly announced 2 years of imprisonment for popular singer, Daler Mehndi due to his involvement in a 2003 Human Trafficking case. As per latest reports, Daler, his brother Shamsher and a few other people have been accused of disguising people as members of his troupe in order to send them abroad.
The complainant, Bakhshish Singh, from Balbhera village in Patiala alleged that the singer had taken Rs 1 crore from him with the promise of sending him abroad but didn’t return the money when the deal fell through. Reports coming in say that in 1998 and 1999, the brothers illegally left behind about 10 people from their troupe in the US. On a trip to US with an actress, Daler “dropped off” 3 girls in San Francisco, and in October 1999, the brothers “dropped off” 3 boys in New Jersey.
Soon after these cases were lodged, about 35 more complaints came up levelling the same charges. All the cases claim that the brothers had taken “passage money” from them in order to help them migrate to the US illegally, but were unable to do it. When Daler’s office in Connaught Place, Delhi was raided, the Punjab police found files containing information about the people who paid the above mentioned passage money.
Daler has now been granted bail and he told reporters outside the court that he plans to appeal in a higher court.