Patiala (The Stellar News): Popular Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi was sent to Patiala jail on Thursday, July 15, 2022, after court sentence him 2 years of imprisonment in a 2003 human trafficking case. The court dismissed his application for the release on probation and police took him into the custody. Daler Mehndi had filed an appeal against his conviction in March 2018 in a lower court, which had sentenced him two years in jail and also charged a fine of Rs. 1000. He was then released on a bail bond. His appeal against lower court order was dismissed by the court of Additional Session Judge H.S. Grewal. After the appeal was dismissed, his medical examination was done and he was taken to Patiala jail, where ex-cricketer and politician Navjot Singh is also being held. The Patiala Police lodged a case against Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Mehndi, after a complaint was filed by Bakshish Singh.
More than 30 complaints, levelling charges of fraud of also came into the light after the further investigation. The complaints alleged that Mehndi brothers had taken ‘passage money’ from them to sent them to US illegally but failed to do so. It was also alleged that Mehndi brothers took two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during the course of which 10 people were taken to US as a group and ‘dropped off’ illegally. On the trip to the US in the company of an actress, Mehndi allegedly ‘dropped off’ three girls in San Francisco. The Patiala Police had raided the office of Daler Mehndi in Connaught Place, New Delhi and seized the case files of those who paid the Mehdi brothers ‘passage money’.
While Shamsher Singh and Dhian Singh died during the trail, Bulbul Mehta an employee of the Mehndi firm, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Report: Deepanjot Kaur (Under Training)
Sources: The information regarding the above mentioned news report is from the site ‘The Hindustan Times’ article published on July 15, 2022.
