Human Trafficking Case: Daler Mehndi’s 2-Year Jail Term Suspended
Patiala Court has suspended Bollywood singer Daler Mehndi's 2 years jail term in the 2003 human trafficking case...
Bollywood and Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi was sentenced 2 years jail term and was subsequently granted bail on March 16.
However, his two-year jail term in the
2003 human trafficking case has now been suspended by Patiala court on
Friday evening after Mehndi's defence counsel moved the court, challenging the
conviction.
Apparently, the court summoned all records pertaining to the case and fixed May 18 as the next date of hearing. The sessions court also asked Mehndi to file a Rs 50,000 bail bond.
Daler Mehndi was found guilty under sections 420
(cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
In 2003, Punjab Police had then registered the case, on a complaint by Bakshish Singh, a native of Punjab’s Balbehra village, who accused Daler and his brother Shamsher Singh, who died last year, of not keeping their promise of sending him abroad and not returning his money.
It had been alleged that the Mehndi brothers had taken
two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during the course of which 10 people were taken to
the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally.
In 2006, the Patiala police filed two discharge petitions stating Daler Mehndi to be innocent, but the court had upheld that the singer be prosecuted as there was “sufficient evidence against him on the judicial file and scope for further investigation”.
