The alleged 1-Crore-per-head ‘Bolo Tara ra ra’ industry of Daler Mehndi

रूखी सूखी खाय के, ठंडा पानी पियो।
देख परायी चूपड़ी, मत ललचायो जियो॥

If the victims of Daler Mehndi’s kabootarbaazi had read the above couplet of saint Kabir, they would have perhaps lived the rest of their lives with peace of mind and money in their pockets.

A fifteen year old case, two years of jail sentence and a bail within thirty minutes!  In yet another example of the judiciary’s dealings with influential people, Punjabi pop singer Daler Mehndi, whose current Twitter bio reads ‘Contact For Live Performance’, was given a two year jail sentence by a Patiala court but was granted bail in a matter of thirty minutes. He was earlier convicted along with his deceased brother Shamsher in a human trafficking case, which involved illegally dropping off people to foreign countries in exchange for hefty amounts of money.

In 2003, Daler Mehndi and Shamsher came under the legal scanner when a man named Bakshish Singh filed a complaint against the brothers for human trafficking. In 1998 and 1999, the duo had taken as many as ten people to the US pretending that these people were part of their dancing troupes, and then illegally dropped them off there. Additionally, they dropped off three girls in San Francisco and three boys in New Jersey.

As soon as the first case came to light, thirty-five more cases were filed against the brothers in quick succession. They used to charge a whopping amount of one crore rupees as passage money. The complainants mentioned that their deals neither materialized, nor did the duo care to return their money.

In 2006, the Patiala court had dismissed two discharge petitions by the police stating that they had enough evidences against the singer. Daler Mehndi’s Delhi office in Connaught Place was raided, where documents including the case files of those who had already paid the passage money, were seized.

In a couple of tweets, Daler Mehndi, who joined Congress in 2013 and sang a campaign song, mentioned that the case was against his brother and not him.

The ‘dardi rab rab kardi’ singer further added that he has complete faith in God and that he would approach the sessions court for justice.

Countless youth in Punjab are becoming victims of the dollar-dream, and this is increasing at an alarming rate. The human trafficking setups lures such youth easily, with promises of a dream life. The ‘Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act’ states a minimum sentence of seven years. Section 366(A) and 372 of Indian Penal Code state a minimum sentence of ten years.  The business of human trafficking in Punjab is a roaring one, despite the state government legislating the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act in 2012 and the Punjab Travel Professional Regulations Act in 2014 to keep a check.

The Punjab NRI Commission terms the situation as alarming. The commission’s order said, “The business of human trafficking is flourishing in Punjab. The number of youths coming into the clutches of travel agents is astronomical with many illegal migrants being deported. Doaba is the focal point for well-entrenched travel agents, who operate at the village level having multi-tier international connections. Thousands of trafficked people from India in general and Punjab in particular are languishing in various jails, refugee homes and camps in various countries.”