The glossy visiting card carries an impressive introduction: Bakshish Singh, chorus singer, Big M Entertainment Private Limited. Head office: New Delhi; Sub-offices: Mumbai, London, New York. In reality, Singh is the matriculate, jobless son of a marginal farmer in Balbehra village of Patiala, who admits to never having stretched his vocal cords-"not even in the bathroom". He was given the new identity as part of the deal he had struck with Shamsher Singh Mehndi, managing director of Big M, who promised to send him abroad as a member of a musical troupe. The price of Bakshish's one-way ticket to Canada was Rs 12 lakh, raised by selling land. The trick worked as Bakshish got a six-month multiple-entry visa in June without making a personal appearance. But as the visa's expiry date neared, a greedy Shamsher demanded Rs 2 lakh more for giving Bakshish his passport.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Daler claims that Shamsher misused his name

It was the last straw. Financially squeezed, the 27-year-old went from chorus singer to whistle-blower. For the Punjab Police, a complaint against an unscrupulous travel agent by an aspiring immigrant is common enough. But investigations into Bakshish's case have not only put Punjabi pop star Daler Mehndi in the dock but blown the lid off the worst-kept secret of Punjab's booming folk music and Indipop industry-trafficking people in the guise of cultural performers. On October 9, the Patiala police booked Shamsher, his famous sibling Daler, and three others under Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and Section 420 (cheating). While Shamsher has been arrested, the police are now snapping at the heels of Daler, who has approached courts in Delhi and Patiala for anticipatory bail.

With a Delhi court rejecting Daler's anticipatory bail application, the police noose around the pop singer has tightened further. The Punjab Police have alerted airports across the country to prevent Daler and others named in the fir from fleeing abroad. The police are also seeking the help of certain embassies to scan their visa processing records to locate members of musical troupes taken abroad by the Mehndis.

HOW THE CASH-FOR-VISAS SCAM WORKED
Bakshish (right) with Harcharan, another victim		Kashmir Singh and Jaswinder Singh (right) were also cheated
BIG BROTHER'S STALKING YOU: Daler Mehndi's lookalike elder brother Shamsher set up a firm called Big M Entertainment. He promised aspiring immigrants easy visas to the West by including them in Daler's troupes. The fee: Rs 12 lakh, with a Rs 2 lakh advance given along with the client's passport.	THE STOOL PIGEON: The scam comes to light when Bakshish Singh, the jobless son of a farmer, complained to the police. He had approached Shamsher to help him move to Canada. Bakshish sold land to pay Rs 12 lakh and was given a new identity as a 'chorus singer.' He did not have to appear for a visa interview.	THE STING: Bakshish was shown his passport with a six-month multiple-entry visa to Canada. But Shamsher demanded an extra Rs 2 lakh, which was not the sum originally agreed upon. As the expiry date of the visa drew closer, a cheated and angry Bakshish complained to the Patiala police.	THE WHISTLE BLOWS: The Mehndis and three others were booked for criminal breach of trust and cheating. Daler evaded arrest but Shamsher was arrested. The singer said he cut off ties with Shamsher long ago and accused the Patiala police of harassing him and demanding a Rs 1.5-crore bribe to drop the case.

Shamsher, one-time tabla-playing member of Daler's musical troupe, was the kingpin of the multi-layered cash-for-visa racket. Though the police are yet to find clinching evidence of Daler's complicity, the high-profile singer's arrest is imminent, given the plethora of complaints-40 till last count-that are pouring in against him and his brother. No sooner did the racket come to light than complainants sprang up from various parts of Punjab with a common allegation: Shamsher had taken hefty amounts from them to send them abroad as part of Daler's troupes.

DALER MEHNDI | RISE AND FALL

The Lonely Ranger

ISOLATED: Daler was haughty in his heyday

Remember the film Mrityudaata? Not many will. Remember the song Sadde Naal sung by Amitabh Bachchan and Daler Mehndi? Everyone does. In 1997, Daler Mehndi was the king of Indipop, his film appearance a final seal on his popularity. Today, he is embroiled in an unsavoury police case, his brother arrested trying to smuggle aspiring immigrants out of the country in the guise of musicians. If it was a swift rise to fame for one of the six sons of a raagi (religious singer), who once drove a New York taxi and sang in a Patna gurdwara, the descent to infamy has been equally swift. The seeds of Daler's current travails lie in his unprecedented success. He was an unlikely Indipop star in an industry dominated by factory-produced performers who looked good in videos but sounded tinnily similar. Daler was portly, wore long tent-like coats, sequinned turbans and in the name of dance steps, flipped his hands around. But the sheer exuberance of his voice and the clever production values given to his songs made him stand out in the crowd. In 1995, his song Bolo ta ra ra became a smash hit. Played in discos and dhabas across India, it sold one lakh copies even in Kerala, where Punjabi is as common as snowfall. He was paid Rs 50 lakh for shows abroad, Rs 15 lakh for an hour-long show at home with encores costing Rs 1 lakh per song. But he grew haughty and disdainful of other Punjabi singers which is why only one, Jasbir Jassi (of Kudi Gujarat di fame), defends him today. Composer Jawahar Wattal remembers a different man from 1997, one full of life. "He would order pizzas and work deep into the night." Composers from his early days say he had talent but had to be "cradled like a baby". They fine-tuned his singing skills, the way he spoke, dressed and carried himself. Lovel Arora of Mumbai-based Colossus, who made many of Mehndi's dance videos, says Daler was "extremely talented and picked up things very quickly". In order to break free of the big banners, Daler set up his own company D.M. Entertainment Private Ltd in 1997. Very conscious of his image, in 2001 he sued an Canadian NRI for setting up a website www.dalermehndi.com and won. The same year he publicly disowned Shamsher and told his acquaintances not to do any favours to his brothers. One associate says, "Daler has been suspicious and peeved over his kin's attempts to misuse his name and fame." His suspicions have now been proved true.

By Sayantan Chakravarty

Shamsher didn't take long to crack. "He sang like a canary," says Inspector Didar Singh, who is leading the investigations. The police claim he has confessed that at least a dozen persons-including seven Gujarati girls-were exported to the US between 1997 and 1999. But in the police lock-up, he sang another tune to India Today. "I am under pressure to name Daler as a partner in my dealings," he said.

Police officials have little doubt about Daler's connivance. "Daler was very much part of the show," says Patiala DSP Paramraj Singh. The scandal is a big blow for the fading pop icon.

Responding to the charges, Daler alleged at a press conference in Delhi that senior Patiala police officers had tried to extort Rs 1.5 crore from him after Shamsher's arrest. "I was asked to either pay up or face a criminal case," he said. Daler claims he had severed ties with Shamsher in 2001 and terminated his services and that his brother had nothing to do with his ventures D.M. Entertainment and D.M. Music-a fact even Shamsher admits.

After Daler dropped the bombshell, the zonal Inspector-General of Police Shashi Kant promptly set up a probe against a deputy superintendent of police, transferred the investigation from the Patiala police and entrusted the case to another sp-rank officer from Sangrur. In less than 24 hours, however, DGP A.A. Siddiqui reversed Kant's order without assigning any reason. The move was apparently prompted by the protests from politically influential lobby of the Patiala police known to be close to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who termed Daler's allegations as "rubbish". Daler's lawyers accuse the police of framing the star out of vendetta. Armed with Amarinder's carte blanche, police are now in overdrive to nail Daler. On October 11, they slapped a case against his personal secretary for attempting to bribe a police official. Daler's Delhi farmhouse was also raided.

It was a well-oiled racket. Shamsher's accomplice Surinder Singh, alias Badshah, of Patiala scouted for clients who could pay Rs 12-15 lakh to immigrate to the US, Canada or Britain. Tejinder Singh Laadi, Shamsher's private secretary-turned-partner, prepared the files of the applicants by describing them as artistes of Big M Entertainment. Invariably, Daler's name headed the list. Paramraj says some embassy staff members may also be involved because several of Shamsher's clients got visas without personal appearances. This despite the tightened visa and immigration norms of western countries since 9/11.

An aspirant had to give Rs 2 lakh as initial payment along with his passport. If Shamsher managed to get a visa, the passport holder was shown a photocopy of the visa stamp and told to cough up the balance. Invariably, Shamsher would hike up the price. "Shamsher often attributed the increase in the fee to Daler's demand," says Harcharan Singh, a 25-year-old victim of the racket, who paid Rs 12 lakh in two instalments to Shamsher to secure a one-year Canadian visa. But Shamsher would not hand over the passport without another Rs 50,000.

Shamsher was arrested by the Delhi Police last year for attempting to forge a US visa. Early this year, he tried to get visas for France and Poland for his musical troupe. The list included Daler's wife and children, as also some "kabootars". The attempt failed but Shamsher managed to get Thai visas for around half a dozen Punjab youth who were promised passage to Germany for Rs 4 lakh each. Last month, both Surinder and Tejinder disappeared with Rs 74 lakh that Big M Entertainment had collected from 10 aspiring immigrants to Canada.

In the backbeat of bhangra's heady rhythm, the unscrupulous hear the ringing of cash registers. The boom in the Punjabi music industry-pegged at about Rs 800 crore-has led to a rapid increase in the number of professional singers from the state (rough estimates say at 2,000) and the growth of dozens of bhangra and giddha academies that often act as fronts for the immigration mafia. In recent years Jalandhar has replaced Ludhiana both as the hub of the immigration racket and the music capital of the state. It is not mere coincidence, but rather an interlinked phenomenon. While Punjabi singers invariably draft the kabootars (aspiring immigrants), NRI music promoters sponsor only those performers who agree to include a few "prepaid" artistes in their groups.

Human trafficking is the dark underbelly of the Punjabi music industry. It is a thriving Rs 500 crore a year business, fuelled both by the declining profits from agriculture and the soaring number of jobless (around 15 lakh) as by the lure of the West. With the "bribery index" for government jobs in Punjab shooting up, many youth feel compelled to immigrate. The Mehndis provided a convenient transit option. As Jalandhar Range IGP J.P. Birdi says, "It is a mutually beneficial trade-off." Indeed.