An Indian couple in the US has been jailed for a year on charges human trafficking and exploitation of an illegal Indian immigrant.
Vishnubhai Chaudhari (50) and Leelabahen Chaudhari (44) of Kimball, Nebraska admitted to harbouring an undocumented Indian national at a motel between October 2011 and February 2013. The victim was made to work long hours, seven days a week at the motel, performing manual labour, including cleaning rooms, shovelling snow and doing laundry.
The couple pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to harbour an alien and alien harbouring for financial gain in December last year. The court also ordered the couple to undergo a two-year supervised release after the jail sentence is over. They face deportation to India after the completion of their sentence besides paying the victim $40,000 in restitution.
According to the US Department of Justice, the couple had promised to pay the victim but they never did and claimed to apply that amount to a debt the victim owed to them.
The DOJ said the couple restricted the victim’s movement and verbally abused him. It said Vishnubhai Chaudhari threatened to find him if the victim ever left the motel and that Leelabahen regularly assaulted him, on one occasion even spalling his face several times because he did not clean a bathtub to her standards.
The victim eventually escaped with the help of a motel guest and local law enforcement.
“This case is a reminder that labour exploitation occurs in the United States, not just overseas, and federal law targets those who profit from human trafficking and related crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Joe Kelly for the District of Nebraska.
“Human trafficking is the modern world’s version of enslaving another person for profit. That is what these individuals have done to this victim,” said Special Agent in Charge Tracy Cormier.
