A court in Punjab’s Patiala on Friday convicted singer Daler Mehndi in a human trafficking case from 2003 and sentenced him to two years in jail, The Statesman reported. Soon after his conviction and sentencing, the court granted him bail.

The Punjabi singer and his brother Shamsher Singh were accused of sending people abroad illegally – under the guise of being members of his troupe – by charging hefty “passage money”. The duo had taken two troupes in 1998 and 1999, when 10 people were taken to the United States and “dropped off” illegally.

The Patiala Police had registered a case against Mehndi and Singh on a complaint filed by one Bakshish Singh, after which 35 more complaints of fraud followed, according to Outlook. In 2006, the court had dismissed two discharge petitions in the case and had held that there was “sufficient evidence against him [Mehndi] on the judicial file and scope for further investigation”.