With a fortune of 37 billion, the Hindujas are considered the richest family in the United Kingdom. But they would pay their servants as little as £7 ($8) for working 18 hours a day. According to the prosecution, they would have spent more on their dog. They also allegedly stole their passports: three of their employees, brought from their native India, also reported that the family rarely allowed them to leave the Cologny neighborhood of Geneva, where their home is located. For this reason, the Swiss court convicted Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, their son Ajay and their daughter-in-law Namrata, for exploitation and illegal work. Also because the amounts reported are not even a tenth of what is required by Swiss law. The sentences range from four to four and a half years. They were instead acquitted of the more serious charge of human trafficking.
The defence
The defendants have already announced an appeal against the sentence. The defense spoke of how the employees were “grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life.” A decidedly different picture than the one portrayed by the prosecution. Lawyers for the super-rich also argued that the workers received extensive benefits, were not held in solitary confinement and were free to leave the mansion. The Hindujas owe their fortune to the Group of the same name, a multinational with interests in oil, gas and the banking sector. They also own the Raffles hotel in London. Currently, the head of the family Kamal is hospitalized in Munich, while the other three defendants are at his bedside.
