As per reports, a local Indian court in Punjab today i.e. March 16, 2018 convicted singer Daler Mehndi on the charges of human trafficking. The singer is under Punjab Police custody now.
As per media reports, Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Singh had been accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by charging hefty “passage money.” It was alleged that the Mehndi brothers had taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during the course of which 10 persons were taken to the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally. Daler, on a trip to the US in the company of a female actor, had allegedly “dropped off” three girls at San Francisco.
Both brothers took another troupe to the US in October 1999 in the company of some other actors during which three boys were “dropped off” at New Jersey.
Soon after the Patiala police registered a case against Daler and Shamsher, on a complaint filed by one Bakshish Singh; 35 more complaints came up levelling charges of fraud against the brothers.
The complainants had alleged that the brothers had taken “passage money’ from them to help them migrate to the US ‘illegally’, but had failed to do so.
The Patiala police had even raided the offices of Daler Mehndi at Connaught Place in New Delhi and seized documents, including the case file of those who had paid the Mehndi brothers ‘passage money”.
In 2006, the Patiala police filed two discharge petitions articulating Daler Mehndi to be innocent, but the court had upheld that Daler Mehndi be prosecuted as there was `sufficient evidence against him on the judicial file and scope for further investigation.’
According to reports, the singer is convicted for illegally sending people abroad in a 2003 case.
