Indian singer Daler Mehndi has been sentenced to two-year jail term in a 2003 human trafficking case. Daler has been taken into custody by police. The District court in Patiala has dismissed his appeal against the two-year jail term. His application for release on probation has also been rejected, says his counsel Advocate Gurmeet Singh.
19 years ago Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Singh were accused of taking money illegally for sending people to USA and Canada through the ‘troupe route’. The first case against the accused was filed in September 2003 at Patiala Saddar Police Station by a man named Bakshish Singh. The complainant accused the Mehndi brothers took two troupes to the US in 1998 and 1999, including 10 people as illegal migrants.
Now In Patiala Jail
-Bikram Singh Majithia
-Navjot Singh Sidhu
& Daler MehndiDaler Mehndi has been put up in Navjot Sidhu’s Barrack (Ward No 10) & Bikram Majithia has been lodged in the neighbouring barrack in the same jail. pic.twitter.com/DcNKKjtgrg
— Gagandeep Singh (@Gagan4344) July 16, 2022
“They took ₹ 13 lakh from me to send me to Canada,” Bakshish Singh told ANI today. “Neither did they send me abroad, nor did they return my money. At that time they used to do this work of sending people abroad.”
Read more: Singer Salman Ahmad comes under FIA radar
Both the brothers were charged under the Indian Penal Code section for human trafficking and conspiracy besides the Indian Passport Act. Both Daler and Shamsher were sentenced to two-year-imprisonment in 2018 by the lower court. Now 15 years later, the session court upheld the decision of the lower court. The court had also convicted the singer in the case related to pigeon pelting in 2003.
The singer has not yet commented on the verdict. As per the law, he has the option to challenge the verdict in the High Court and Supreme Court of India.
Daler Mehndi was on bail. Following the first complaint, 35 more complaints came. Shamsher died in 2017 when the trial was going on. Daler Mehndi is a high-profile singer in India who has sung some famous Bollywood songs. Earlier, Navjoth Singh Sidhu was also sentenced to prison in road rage case.