AGI – A Swiss court has four members of Britain’s richest family sentenced to prison on Friday for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva villa.
The Hindujas – who were not present in court – were acquitted of tbarrage of human beings, but convicted of other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated to be £37 billion ($47 billion).
Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja were sentenced to four years and six months each, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received a four-year sentence, the presiding judge in Geneva ruled. The charges stem from the family’s practice of bringing servants from their native India, seizing their passports once they arrived in Switzerland.
Prosecutors argued that the Hinduja they paid their staff a pittance and gave them little freedom to leave the house. The family has denied the allegations, claiming that prosecutors wanted to “make Hindujas”. The parties reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the three employees who made the allegations against them. Despite this, the prosecution decided to pursue the case due to the seriousness of the charges.
Geneva prosecutor Yves Bertossa had requested a prison sentence of five and a half years against Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, aged 78 and 75, both absent from the start of the trial for health reasons.
In his indictment, the prosecutor accused the family of having abused the “asymmetric situation” between the powerful employer and the vulnerable employee to save money.
Domestic staff received a salary of between 220 and 400 francs ($250-450) a month, far below what they could expect to earn in Switzerland.
“They are taking advantage of the misery of the world,” Bertossa told the court. But lawyers for the Hinduja family argued that the three plaintiffs received extensive benefits, were not held in solitary confinement and were free to leave the mansion. “We are not dealing with mistreated slaves,” Nicolas Jeandin told the court.
Effectively, the employees “were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life,” argued his fellow lawyer Robert Assael. Representing Ajay Hinduja, lawyer Yael Hayat had criticized the “excessive” prosecution, arguing that the trial should be a matter of “justice, not social justice.”
Namrata Hinduja’s lawyer, Romain Jordan, also called for acquittal, arguing that prosecutors aimed to set an example for the family. He argued that the prosecution had not mentioned payments made to staff in addition to their cash salaries. “No employee was defrauded of his salary,” Assael added.
Some staff even asked for raises, which they received. With interests in oil and gas, banking and healthcare, the Hinduja Group is present in 38 countries and employs around 200,000 people.
