M A I N   N E W S

HC seeks details of new complaints against Daler
Our Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 21
The Delhi High Court today sought fresh affidavit from the Punjab police giving details about the 31 more complaints it claimed to have received against pop star Daler Mehndi and his brothers after perusing the case diary in a human trafficking case against them.

Mr Justice S.K. Agrawal directed Punjab’s Additional Advocate-General Atul Nanda to file the affidavit by tomorrow after the arguments on the anticipatory bail petition of Daler Mehndi had almost concluded today.

The direction came in the wake of Mr Nanda’s submission at the conclusion of his argument, opposing the bail on the ground that the Punjab police had received 31 more complaints against Mehndi and his brother Shamsher Singh about their alleged involvement in the immigration racket and those needed to be investigated.

“File short affidavit about the 31 more complaints against them by tomorrow and the matter will be heard further on Thursday,” Mr Justice Agrawal said.

The Punjab police counsel opposed the grant of bail to Mehndi, accusing him of “judicial misconduct” by suppressing vital material information in the English translation of the FIR in the copy filed by him with the bail petition.

Matching paragraph-wise the translated version with the original copy of the FIR, filed by the police today, Mr Nanda said the accused had tried to suppress the vital fact showing his direct involvement in cheating complainant Bakshish Singh, on whose complaint the FIR was registered.

Contending that the grant of bail at this stage would obstruct the investigation in the case when more complaints were pouring in against them, the police counsel said: “His arrest was necessary as the police has to confront him with documents recovered so far. Besides, his passport has to be recovered”.

Stating that Mehndi was trying to evade arrest, Mr Nanda claimed that a lot of material had been recovered against the accused persons, which could not be disclosed in the open court.

The police counsel also opposed the plea of Mehndi’s counsel for limited protection so that he could present himself before the trial court at Patiala stating that “nobody is preventing him from moving the court of competent jurisdiction”.

Earlier, Mehndi’s counsel while seeking pre-arrest bail for the pop star, said: “The court may at least grant his client a cover from arrest to enable him to present himself before the trial court.”