A Swiss court on Friday sentenced four members of the Hinduja family to up to 4.5 years in jail for exploiting domestic workers, Associated Press said in a report.
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.
