Daler Mehndi singer gets 2 years of jail; why?

Daler Mehndi was convicted to two years in prison in 2003 for human trafficking in Patiala.

Daler Mehndi brother illegally sent people abroad while posing as troupe members; the complainant claims they took the money but did not send him abroad.

Daler Mehndi’s appeal against a two-year prison term in a 2003 case of human trafficking for taking people abroad by posing as troupe members was denied today by a district court in Patiala, and he was sentenced to prison. He had been on bail since his original sentence in 2018.

Daler Mehndi aalso nd his brother Shamsher Singh were accused in the complaints nearly two decades ago of collecting “passage money” to carry people abroad, primarily to the United States and Canada, via the “troupe” route.

Bakshish Singh, one of these men, filed the case in Patiala in September 2003. He claimed the brothers led two groups to the United States in 1998 and 1999, including ten people for illegal immigration. “They took 13 lakh rupees from me. But, they neither sent me abroad nor returned my money.”

The brothers were arrested a 30 days after the FIR was filed and released on bail within days. Both were charged with human trafficking and conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code and the Indian Passport Act. According to reports, 35 other complaints were filed following the filing of the FIR.

Daler was punished to 2 years in prison by a judicial magistrate’s court in 2018 but was rereleased on bail. Later, he filed an appeal.

That appeal was dismissed today by Additional District and Sessions Judge HS Grewal. His bail petition was also denied, as was a request to be released on probation a commitment to good behavior rather than jail time.

He can now appeal to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Three years after the FIR, the local police filed petitions claiming they had discovered nothing on Daler Mehndi.