Harpreeet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: Famous Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi was today convicted and sentenced to two years in jail in a 15-year-old ‘Kabootarbazi’ (human trafficking) case he was arrested and then released on bail.

A court in Patiala today convicted and sentenced Mehndi for two years in jail who was present in court in a case registered against him and others in 2003 on charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. He was immediately arrested and later released on bail by the court.

Daler Mehndi and brother Shamsher Singh (now deceased) and two others Bulbul Mehta and Dhian Singh had been accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by taking money.

As they have taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 to USA in which they reportedly took ten people including three girls who were left their only.

It was alleged that on his tour to the USA in 1998 with Karishma Kapoor and her mother Babita, Daler had taken three girls (Priya, Meenu Behn and Nimu) all belonging to Gujarat and left them there in San Francisco.

While in 1999 Daler and his brother went on another tour of USA with Juhi Chawla, Raveena Tandon and Javed Jaffri and then allegedly took three boys who were reportedly dropped in New Jersey, claimed sources.

The human trafficking case was registered on October 19, 2003, following a complaint by one Bakshish Singh, a resident of Balvera village in Patiala besides 35 more complaints who later came up.

In his complaint, Singh had alleged that he was cheated and duped by the Mehndi brothers on the pretext of sending him abroad as a member of pop singer's troupe.

Patiala Police had raided the offices of Daler Mehndi at Connaught Place in New Delhi and seized documents, including the case file of those who had allegedly paid money to Mehndi brothers to go abroad.

But in 2006, the Patiala Police filed two discharge petitions articulating Daler Mehndi to be innocent, but the court had upheld that Daler Mehndi be prosecuted as there was sufficient evidence against him.