An Indian pop-singer Daler Mehndi has been sentenced to two years in jail in human trafficking case.
The Hindu reports Bakhshish Singh from Patiala registered a case against Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Mehndi alleging the duo took money to take him to Canada in 2003 illegally.
Daler Mehndi was arrested following the registration of case but released on bail thereafter.
Around 35 more complaints, levelling charges of fraud against the brothers came up later.
According to a report published in The Times of India, Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher were accused of taking ‘passage money’ from people to help them migrate to US illegally by disguising them as members of his troupe.
It has been alleged that the Mehndi brothers took two troupes in 1998 and 1999 where 10 people were taken to the US as group members and “dropped off” illegally.
On Friday, he was convicted and sentenced him to two years in prison for his involvement in a human trafficking case and fined ₹1,000. He was however released on bail bond.
The singer claims he is innocent and vowed, on Twitter, to appeal the verdict.
50-year-old Mehndi has several hits to his credit and has sung a bunch of songs for Indian film industry. He is popular and has a huge fan following among the Indian diaspora in Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
His Tunak Tunak Tun number has over 81 million views on YouTube.
