Minutes after Daler Mehndi was convicted in a 15-year-old human trafficking case, the Punjabi pop singer was granted bail, according to news agency ANI. He was sentenced to two years in jail.
The 50-year-old singer and his brother, Shamsher Singh was convicted earlier today and immediately taken into custody by the Punjab Police.
The case has been pending since 2003 when the brothers were accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by charging hefty “passage money.”
The Mehndi brothers had allegedly taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during the course of which 10 people were taken to the US as a part of their troupe and were illegally dropped off. Daler Mehndi, in the company of an well-known actress had dropped of three girls in San Francisco, California.
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Both the brothers took another troupe to the US in October 1999 in the company of some other actors, had dropped off three boys in New Jersey. Soon after the Patiala Police registered a case against Daler Mehndi and Shamsher Singh, 35 more complaints came up charging them of fraud.
The police had registered a case against Daler and 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.
The 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. Daler was subsequently arrested and released on bail after a few days.