CHANDIGARH: A court in Punjab’s Patiala dismissed the plea of leading bhangra-pop singer Daler Mehndi against his two-year jail in a 19-year-old human trafficking case. He was subsequently arrested and sent to a local jail.
He was convicted along with his brother in March 2018 and later released on bail. As his bail plea was dismissed by the court of additional sessions judge HS Grewal, Daler Mehndi was taken into custody.
Police had registered a case against the singer, his brother Shamsher Singh – who died in October 2017 – and two others, after it was alleged that the accused took money from people to the tune of £00,000 on the pretext of taking them abroad.
Complainant, Bakhshish Singh, alleged that the deal never matured and the accused failed to return the money. The case was registered in 2003 in Patiala. Daler Mehndi was subsequently arrested but released on bail after a few days.
Police had earlier moved two petitions before the court saying that Daler Mehndi was not required in the case as he had nothing to do with the immigration fraud, called ‘kabootarbaazi’ – literally flying of pigeons but referring to numerous youth in Punjab trying to use illegal means to settle abroad.
The singer was arrested by the police in October 2003 along with his brother.
Daler’s lawyer Rakesh Thakur said they would file an appeal against the conviction orders in the Punjab and Haryana HC. “Finally, justice has been delivered. There were 31 complainants in the case and the total amount cheated ran up to £193,000,” said Gurpreet Singh Bhasin, counsel of the complainants.
