Daler Mehndi trial in human trafficking case to begin on Oct 11

PATIALA: "The Punjabi pop icon Daler Mehndi to be prosecuted and a trial be held to deliver justice in the much-touted human trafficking case". Orders of this effect passed out by the chief judicial magistrate1st class Rajwinder Singh here Thursday.

Court has asked Daler to appear personally on October 11 after dismissing his petition seeking exemption from personal appearance in the court during the trial.

Earlier, the court had even dismissed two discharge petitions filed by the police in favour of Daler Mehndi and had ordered the police to file a fresh challan against Mehndi. The first discharge petition was filed in February this year stating that Daler Mehndi should be discharged of all the charges as he had been found to be innocent in the case. This petition was rejected by the court, which had then upheld that there was sufficient evidence on the judicial file against Daler Mehndi and the police should prosecute the case. 

Following this the police again moved another discharge application in the court of 1st class chief judicial magistrate Rajwinder Singh. However, this court also rejected the second application and ordered the police to file a fresh challan against Daler Mehndi. 

A case against Daler Mehndi some of his associates including his brother Shamsher Mehndi was registered by the Patiala police way back in 2003. The Mehndi brothers had been booked at the Patiala sadar police station under sections 420 and 406 of the Indian penal code and later some more sections were added to the FIR. 

Gurpreet singh, counsel for the complaintants said here today that the case had been registered following a complaint filed by one Bakshish Singh of Balbehra village, near here, who had alleged that he had been duped by the Mehndi brothers who had received lakhs of rupees from him on the pretext of sending him abroad as a member of the troupe of Daler Mehndi. After the registration of case against the Mehndi brothers several other complainants had also come with similar complaints against the two brothers.