Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi arrested, sentenced to Indian jail for ‘human trafficking’

A Patiala court on Thursday announced a two-year-jail term for Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi in a human trafficking case that dates back to 2003.

A district court in Patiala on Thursday upheld a 2018 verdict by a trial court in a 19-year-old trafficking case where Mehndi and his brother were accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his dance crew.

Patiala Additional Sessions judge HS Grewal ordered the immediate arrest of the singer.

The first case was filed in September 2003 at the Patiala Sadar police station by a man named Bakshish Singh, alleging that the Mehndi brothers took two troupes to the US in 1998 and 1999, including 10 people for illegal migration, the report added.

"They took ₹ 13 lakh from me to send me to Canada," Bakshish Singh told ANI today. "Neither did they send me abroad, nor did they return my money. At that time they used to do this work of sending people abroad."

Back in 2013, an FIR was registered at the Sardar Patiala police station, and the singer was booked under sections 406, 420, 120B, 465, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Indian Passport Act.

In 2018, a judicial magistrate held both the brothers guilty and sentenced them to two years in jail. However, they were granted bail minutes after the conviction. They later filed an appeal in the Sessions Court.

Daler can now appeal to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the reports further suggest.