Indian-American couple sentenced to prison for forcing relative to work at gas station

Washington: A US court has sentenced an Indian-American couple to prison for forcing their loved one to work at their gas station and convenience store for over three years by bringing him to the US on the pretext of helping him to enroll in a school.

Harmanpreet Singh, 31, was sentenced to 135 months (11.25 years) in prison and Kulbir Kaur, 43, to 87 months (7.25 years) by the court which also asked them to pay to the victim, his cousin, 225,210.76 USD (Rs 1.87 crores approximately) in restitution.

The couple has since divorced.

“The defendants exploited their relationship with the victim to lure her to the United States with false promises that they would help her enroll in school,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. of Civil Rights of the Department of Justice.

“The defendants confiscated the victim's immigration documents and subjected him to threats, physical force and mental abuse to force him to work long hours for minimal pay,” she said.

“This sentence should send a strong message that this forced labor will not be tolerated in our communities,” she added.

U.S. Attorney Jessica D Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia said the defendants took advantage of the victim's sincere desire to gain an education and improve her life.

Instead, they deprived him of his most basic human needs and his freedom, the lawyer said.

Evidence presented at trial showed that in 2018, the defendants lured the victim, Singh's cousin who was then a minor, to travel to the United States from India with false promises of helping him enroll in school, the Justice Department said.

He said after the victim arrived in the United States, the defendants took his immigration documents and forced him to provide labor and services at the Singh store for more than three years, between March 2018 and May 2021.

Singh and Kaur forced the victim to work at the store, including cleaning, cooking, stocking and handling the store's cash register and ledgers, between 12 and 17 hours a day, almost every day, for minimal pay. , according to evidence presented at the hearing. trial.

They used a variety of coercive measures, including confiscating the victim's immigration documents and subjecting her to physical violence, threats of force and other serious harm, and, at times, degrading living conditions to compel her to continue working, according to the evidence.

The couple left the victim at the store to sleep in a back office for several days on multiple occasions, limited her access to food, refused to provide her with medical care or education, used surveillance equipment to monitor the victim both at the store and at his home, refused his requests to return to India and made him extend the duration of his visa, according to the evidence.

The accused also forced the victim to marry Kaur and used the marriage to threaten to take the victim's family property or falsely report him to the police if he left.

Evidence also showed that Singh pulled the victim's hair, slapped and kicked him when he asked for his immigration documents or tried to leave. On three occasions, he threatened the victim with a gun for trying to take the day off and for trying to leave.