British billionaire Hinduja family goes on trial in Geneva for trafficking and exploitation of domestic workers

Britain's richest family, the Hindujas, are on trial in Switzerland for human trafficking and exploitation of their Indian staff in Geneva, the BBC reported.

The trial began on Monday in Geneva against four family members – Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, their son Ajay and his wife Namrata. The Hindujas own a business conglomerate that includes companies working in sectors such as automobiles, oil, banking, finance and real estate.

The family owns a villa in the Swiss city of Geneva. The proceedings against them in Switzerland relate to the fact that they brought servants from India to look after their children and the house.

Prosecutors alleged that the Hindujas confiscated the domestic workers' passports and did not allow them to leave the house without permission, Bloomberg reported.

The workers' salaries were paid in India, so they had no Swiss francs to spend, prosecutor Yves Bertossa said.

“They spent more on a dog than on one of their servants,” the prosecutor said, according to Bloomberg. He told the court that an Indian domestic worker at Hinduja House was at one point paid as little as 7 Swiss francs (Rs 660) for a day's work that lasted up to 18 hours.

He then showed a budget document titled 'Pets' to show that the family spent 8,584 Swiss francs (Rs 8,09,326) per year on their family dog.

Prosecutors said Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, who did not appear in court due to health problems, were in contempt of court. Bertossa demanded five and a half years in prison for them. He said that since the elderly couple were traveling freely between Dubai and Cannes, they could have spent an extra 30 minutes on a plane to come to Geneva, reported Bloomberg.

For Ajay and his wife Namrata, the Swiss prosecution requested a sentence of four and a half years in prison. Bertossa also demanded that the family cover 1 million Swiss francs in legal costs and pay 3.5 million francs as a compensation fund for staff.

Lawyers for the Hinduja family argued that workers' low wages should be seen in the context that staff were also provided with housing and food.

“The salary cannot simply be reduced to what they were paid in cash,” Yael Hayat, Ajay Hinduja’s lawyer, told the court. Bloomberg. She also said the claim about 18-hour work days was also exaggerated.

“When they [domestic workers] sitting down to watch a movie with the kids, can that be considered work,” Hayat said. “I do not think so.”

The Hindujas' lawyers also argued that the family members themselves were not involved in hiring or day-to-day management of staff and that this was done by the company in India.

The criminal trial against the Hindujas comes after the family and its staff settled a civil lawsuit last week, reported Bloomberg.