Punjabi pop king and Bollywood playback singer Daler Mehndi had been accused of illegally sending people abroad as members of his troupe by charging "passage money”. Soon after the court convicted Daler Mehndi on charges of running an illegal immigration ring in 2003 and sentenced him to two years in jail, he was granted bail.
The case that was filed on 19 October 2003 against Daler Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Singh alleged that both of them had taken people illegaly to the US as group members.
The Patiala Police had registered a case against Daler and Shamsher on a complaint filed by a person named Bakshish Singh. Reports said Patiala Police had raided the offices of Daler Mehndi at Connaught Place in New Delhi and seized documents, including the case file of those who had paid the alleged "passage money" to Mehndi brothers. Shamsher Singh passed away in October 2017.
