Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi, who landed in trouble following allegations of running an illegal immigration scandal in 2003, appeared before a court on Thursday in connection with the human trafficking case.
The singer and his brother Shamsher have been accused of illegally sending people abroad disguised as members of his troupe by charging hefty “passage money.”
It was alleged that Mehndi brothers took two troupes in 1998 and 1999 during which 10 people were taken to the US as group members and were “dropped off” illegally.
Daler, on a trip to the US allegedly “dropped off” three girls at San Francisco. Both brothers took another troupe to the US in October 1999 in the company of some other actors during which three boys were “dropped off” at New Jersey.
35 more charges of fraud claimed that the duo took “passage money” from them to help them migrate to the US “illegally”, but had failed to do so.
Police has raided Daler’s New Delhi office and seized documents. Courts upheld the singer’s prosecution claiming that there is sufficient evidence against for further investigation.
(With PTI inputs)
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