Human trafficking case: Daler Mehndi, brother sentenced to 2 years in jail, get bail

Singer Daler Mehndi and his brother Samsher have been convicted for the crime of human trafficking by the Patiala court in a 2003 case. The two have been found guilty for illegally sending people abroad through his musical troupe and charging ‘passage fees’ from them. But the two of them got bail shortly.

It was alleged that Mehndi and his brothers had taken two troupes to the USA in 1998 and 1999 during which they illegally ‘dropped off’ 10 people.

Soon after the Patiala police registered a case against the two brothers, as many as 35 complaints came up that accused them of fraud. The complainants alleged that the two brothers charged exorbitant fees from them for an illegal passage to the US, but they failed to do so.

The Patiala police had raided Mehndi’s offices at Connaught Place in Delhi and got hold of important documents, including the case file of the ones who paid ‘passage fees’ to the two brothers.

The Patiala police had filed discharge petitions that stated that Mehndi is innocent. However, the court maintained that the singer be prosecuted as there was “sufficient evidence against him on the judicial file and scope for further investigation.”