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Daler Mehndi's brother illegally sent people abroad while posing as troupe members; the complainant claims they took the money but did not send him abroad.
Digital Desk: 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 and his brother Shamsher Singh were accused in the complaints nearly two decades ago of collecting "passage money" to take people abroad, primarily to the United States and Canada, via the "troupe" route. While they did take some people, others claimed they took the money but did not keep their word.
One of these men, by the name of Bakshish Singh, filed the case in September 2003 at Patiala. He claimed that in 1998 and 1999, the brothers brought two groups to the US, one of which contained ten illegal immigrants. "They stole 13 lakh rupees from me. They neither sent me abroad nor gave me my money back, "he added.
A month after the FIR, the brothers were found and were released on bail in a matter of days. Both were accused of violating the Indian Passport Act as well as the sections of the Indian Penal Code that deal with conspiracy and human trafficking. According to reports, 35 additional complaints were filed after that FIR.
While the trial was ongoing in 2017, Shamsher Mehndi passed away.
A judicial magistrate's court gave Daler Mehndi a two-year prison sentence in 2018, but he was later released on bail. He then submitted an appeal.
Judge HS Grewal of the Additional District and Sessions Court dismissed that appeal today. His request for probationary release, which would have allowed him to avoid jail time in exchange for a promise of good behaviour, was also denied.
He now has the choice to file a lawsuit against the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The local police filed petitions in 2006, three years after the FIR, asserting that they had not uncovered any evidence of Daler Mehndi. The court, however, ruled that there was "sufficient evidence" to warrant further investigation and refused to release him. Initially, the imprisonment took another 12 years, and now it will take four more years for it to be affirmed.
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