Immigration Fraud Case: Daler Mehndi’s two-year jail term suspended by HC

Mehndi had moved HC in July after a Patiala court upheld his two-year sentence, awarded in March 2018 by the trial court, in the immigration fraud case.

Mehndi’s lawyers argued in high court that the trial court as well as the lower appellate court have not appreciated the evidence presented in the case in the correct perspective. His call detail records and tower location clearly shows that he was never present in Patiala in the relevant period, they contended. The lawyers submitted that even the visit of the complainant to Delhi on August 12, 2003, to allegedly hand over an amount of Rs 1 lakh to Mehndi, which is the only transaction, was not found to be substantiated.

The bench said that from call detail and tower location records, Mehndi’s presence is not established in Patiala on the relevant dates. Further, it is evident that a private agency was employed for providing security at Mehndi’s house in Delhi, which had been duly maintaining record of visitors.