Four years in prison – ..
Four members of Britain’s richest Indian-origin billionaire Hinduja family have been convicted and jailed by a Swiss court for exploiting their servants.
Businessman Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja have been sentenced to four and a half years and his son Ajay and daughter-in-law Namrata have been sentenced to four years. The Hinduja family is accused of exploiting the servants working in their Swiss villa. Most of them are Indian and uneducated. They are accused of working 17-18 hours a day at low wages without any leave. Kamal Hinduja created an atmosphere of fear among the servants. The family is also accused of spending more on dogs than on servants. The Hinduja family has appealed in the court against the sentence and has expressed displeasure against the court order. However, the court has dismissed the charges of human trafficking in this case. All four have been acquitted in the human trafficking case.
Despite deal with prosecutors, case not closed
It is learnt that the Hinduja family reached a settlement with the prosecutors, however, the case was not closed. Prakash Hinduja was convicted in a similar case in 2007. This time before pronouncing the sentence, the court confiscated some assets from the Hinduja family including diamond, ruby and platinum necklaces to recover legal expenses and fines.
Servants are paid Rs. 660 salary : Passport taken away
The Hinduja family made the servants work for 18 hours a day and in return they were paid Rs. 660. The servants’ passports were taken away. The average annual salary of the servants was Rs. 2.50 lakhs while the family spent Rs. 8 lakhs. The servants were not allowed to go out of the house.
