Court orders Daler's prosecution, summons him on Oct 11

Patiala, Aug 31 (UNI) A local court today ordered that Punjabi pop icon Daler Mehndi be prosecuted in the three-year-old human trafficking case and asked him to appear in person on October 11.

Chief Judicial magistrate (1st class) Rajwinder Singh dismissed a petition filed by Daler Mehndi seeking exemption from personal appearance in the court during the trial.

Earlier, the court had 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.

Gurpreet singh, counsel for the complaintants, said here today that the case against Daler Mehndi and some of his associates, including his brother Shamsher Mehndi, was registered by the Patiala police 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.

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 pop singer's troupe.

After the registration of case, several other complainants had also come out with similar complaints against the two brothers.

In February this year, the police filed a discharge petition 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.

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

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