In a rather shocking turn of events, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday suspended the jail term of Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi.
The recent development comes after Mehndi was sentenced to two years in jail in 2018 for his involvement in a 2003 human trafficking case. The singer had approached the high court on July 20 after the Patiala district court upheld the two-year jail term.
“His sentence has been suspended, which means that he will be out on bail, pending proceedings before the high court,” his lawyer, Arshdeep Singh Cheema, said as quoted by Hindustan Times.
Mehndi was held guilty under Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was reportedly sentenced to two years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2000 by the trial court. Following the dismissal of Mehndi’s appeal on July 14 by the additional district sessions court, Daler Mehndi was taken into custody and was lodged in Patiala Jail.
Earlier, he was convicted by a trial court in 2018.
For the unversed, the Patiala police booked Daler and his brother Shamsher Mehndi, who died in 2017, and two others on a complaint filed by Bakshish Singh of Balbera village.
As per the Hindustan Times report, Bakshish had alleged that Mehndi took ₹12 lakh to send him to Canada. Meanwhile, thirty-five more complaints, levelling allegations of fraud against the brothers had also cropped up. While Shamsher and Dhian Singh died during trial, Bulbul Mehta, an employee of Mehndi’s firm, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The complaints alleged that the Mehndi brothers had taken ‘passage money’ from them to help them migrate to the US illegally, but failed to do so.
Furthermore, it was also alleged that the Mehndi brothers had taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during which 10 people were taken to the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally.
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