A court in Punjab’s Patiala on Thursday dismissed Daler Mehndi’s appeal against the imprisonment and awarded a two-year jail term to the popular Punjabi singer in connection with a 19-year-old human trafficking case. He was subsequently arrested and sent to a local jail.
Mehndi was taken into custody after the court of Additional Sessions Judge HS Grewal dismissed his bail plea. “It is pertinent to mention that Daler Mehndi was punished for two years on 16.03.18 by the JMIC Patiala. Now he is being sent to Patiala jail. The Patiala police have already taken him into its custody,” the order reads.
Mehndi was convicted along with his brother Shamsher Singh in March 2018 and was later released on bail.
Police had registered a case against Mehndi, his brother — who died in October 2017 — and two others, after it was alleged that the accused took money from people to the tune of Rs 1 crore 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. Mehndi was subsequently arrested but released on bail after a few days.
Police had earlier moved two petitions before the court saying that 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.
Police officials, after probe, had stated that Mehndi and other performers had got into a well-organised racket to illegally take youth out of Punjab to western nations by making them part of musical troupes. The youth were charged up to Rs 2 million in each case.
But after police started the proceedings that Mehndi had nothing to do with the immigration fraud case, the complainant moved court again objecting to the singer being discharged. He had said that both the brothers had duped him.
Mehndi’s arrest was quite controversial at a police station in Patiala in 2003 as he was asked to strip by a few junior police officers during interrogation. He spent a few days behind lock-up before being released on bail.
His younger brother, singer Mika, who accompanied him during the surrender in 2003, had to beat a hasty retreat near the police station when an “organised” mob surrounded their vehicles.
(with inputs from IANS)
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