Swiss Court Sentences 4 Members Of Hinduja Family To Over 4 Years In Jail For Exploiting Domestic Workers
The four members of the Hinduja family were accused of seizing workers’ passports, paying them in rupees, not Swiss francs and barring them from leaving the villa.
The court ruled that the four members were guilty of exploiting the workers and providing unauthorized employment, such as by giving meager if any health benefits and paying wages that were less than one-tenth the pay for such jobs in Switzerland.
The Swiss criminal court, however, cleared the billionaire family of charges that they engaged in illegal trafficking of their servants, who were employed at their luxurious villa in Geneva.
The Associated Press report said that none of the four members of the family were in Geneva court. But the family's business manager Najib Ziazi attended the proceedings and receieved an 18 months suspended sentence.
Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja got four years and six months each, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received four-year terms, AFP quoted the presiding judge as saying.
The four Hinduja family members also barred the domestic workers from leaving the villa and forcing them to work excruciatingly long hours, among other charges. As per reports, the household staff were paid salaries between 220 and 400 francs (250-450 US dollars) a month.
However, the Hinduja family's defence lawyers said that the three plaintiffs received ample benefits, were not kept in isolation and were free to leave the villa.
Hinduja group in a statement said, "The four Swiss-national members of the Hinduja Family, Kamal & Prakash Hinduja, Namrata & Ajay Hinduja, have not been subjected to any imprisonment, conviction, sentence or detention. Per Swiss Law procedures, the lower court's judgement is rendered ineffective and inoperative as the presumption of innocence is paramount until and unless a final judgment by the highest adjudicating authority is enforced."
"It may be noted that the case has no complainants left anymore and they had declared in the court that they were led into signing statements that they didn't even understand. They had neither intended to nor initiated such proceedings. All of them further testified that the four Hinduja Family Members treated them with “respect, dignity and like family," the statement added.
It further said that the four Family members have full faith in the Swiss Judicial Process and remain confident that the truth will prevail.
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