Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Now Released – Passport Surrendered

Posted by: PakMusic in News February 14, 2011 1 Comment 4,294 Views

New Delhi: Pakistani signer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan has been released, 28 hours after he was detained at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport with undeclared currency worth US $ 124,000, or over Rs. 60 lakh.

But the singer has surrendered his passport.

Rahat and two others – Maroof and Chitresh Shrivastava – have been asked to appear before the DRI on February 17 again.

This comes after Pakistan asked India to immediately end the protective custody of the singer.

The singer left the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) building on Monday evening after questioning. During his interrogation, Rahat told the DRI officials that he is a school dropout and hence not familiar with the laws.

As per norms, a foreign national cannot carry beyond US $5,000 in cash and US $5,000 in other instruments. The person has to declare the amount if he is carrying more than this to the Customs Department.

The government is, meanwhile, investigating the source of the money that the singer was carrying.

A nephew of Pakistani singing legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat is a top Bollywood playback singer and has several hit numbers to his credit. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer this year for ‘Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji’ from the movie ‘Ishqiya’.

He was earlier too involved in a controversy when organizers of a concert in Gurgaon filed a police complaint against him in July last year for his failure to turn up for a show.