US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Rumours of threat to his life have Daler hopping mad

Pop star Daler Mehndi is in a quandary. Rumours are doing the rounds in the media that he is on the hit-list of Dubai-based fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

Though he denies any such threat, few are willing to believe him. Result: his career has been hit hard.

Daler did not cry foul till his concert scheduled to be held in Bhubaneshwar on June 12 was cancelled at the eleventh hour by the organisers, citing security reasons.

The district administration did not help Daler either. They clamped Section 144 near the Stewart School area where the concert was to be held. The local police claimed to have asked the organisers to shift the venue of the concert to another secure place but the organisers did not listen.

But Daler was not one bit interested as to what transpired between the local police and the organisers. It was the second time that his show had been cancelled in Orissa in the last year and he was very angry. "I will not perform in Orissa again," Daler told the media in Bhubaneshwar after he was told of the cancellation. "If the government has no respect for a singer, I would not like to sing here. I might come to Orissa for a darshan of Lord Jagannath, but never to perform," he said.

The show was organised by Coca-Cola, and Rs 3 million had already been spent when it was called off. Daler also met Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang seeking his intervention. "I explained to him that it was not a ticketed show and that its cancellation would came as a terrible shock to music lovers. But the CM did not pay heed to my requests,'' he said.

Daler's problems started in May when a story appeared in the Hindustan Times saying that a Delhi-based pop singer was getting threatening calls from Dawood aide Abu Salem. Though the story did not mention Daler by name, it was more then evident that he was the subject of the story.

"In a letter to the Delhi police, the Intelligence Bureau has asked the force to beef up the singer's security. According to sources in intelligence agencies, Abu Salem first called up one of the singer's friends and asked him to tell Daler that Abu Salem wanted to speak to him. The friend informed the singer, but it was initially brushed off by him as the work of some prankster. Later, Abu Salem called Daler on his mobile and spoke to him in foul language and asked the singer to take his calls seriously otherwise he would have to face dire consequences," the report said.

The report was followed by a PTI story which quoted Uday Sahai, deputy commissioner of police (west district) saying: "We would not like to comment on this at this moment.''

Since then there has been a spate of newspaper and magazine reports on the perceived threat to Daler's life. A weekly magazine from the South carried the transcript of the conversation supposed to have taken place between the singer and Abu Salem. The story also claimed that Abu Salem had first spoken to a friend of Daler in Madras.

Another newspaper claimed that Abu Salem had called the general manager of his Bombay office.

A spokesperson for Daler, however, denies all this.

"We are sick of reading such false newspaper reports day in and day out. The whole thing seems to be the handiwork of someone who does not want Daler to do his work,'' he said.

"This is the second time our show has been cancelled in Orissa. It definitely has something more to it than meets the eye. We are not even aware of any threat perception. Daler has not received any call from Abu Salem either himself or through anyone else. He does not have a friend in Chennai. What amuses us more is that though we don't have an office in Bomay, news reports say we have a general manager there. So far the Delhi police or anyone else from the Intelligence Bureau has not got in touch with us,'' he added.

The Intelligence Bureau denied that it had at any point of time sent a note to the Delhi police about the threat to Daler's life. "We got far too many serious things on our hands. If there is anything, the Delhi police would be able to answer your questions," said an IB source.

Tell us what you think of this report