Hear
Four members of Britain’s richest family are on trial in Switzerland for alleged human trafficking and exploitation.
Swiss justice accuses Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, along with their son Ajay and his wife, Namrata, of bringing men and women from India to work as domestic servants in a mansion they own in an exclusive neighborhood of Geneva and of paying them barely US$8 a day for long work days.
Authorities also accuse clan members of taking away their employees’ passports to restrict their movements.
The lawyers of the Hindujas, the family that owns a conglomerate of companies valued at US$47 billionoffered controversial explanations, such as that low salaries were only part of the remuneration, to which accommodation and meals had to be added.
The Hindujas come from India and control a group of the same name, which is made up of a network of companies ranging from construction companies, merchandise distributors and vehicle manufacturers to lubricant producers and banks, according to the conglomerate’s website.
The empire was founded by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja in 1914 in part of what is now Pakistan and initially focused on the sale of products, although it later ventured into banking.
By 1919, the businessman had already managed to expand his businesses to Iran, where he operated until the arrival of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when they moved their operations to the United Kingdom.
The founder’s sons – Srichand, Gopichard and Prakash – shared the management and continued the expansion and internationalization of the group.
Upon Srichand’s death in 2023, his younger brother, Gopichard, succeeded him as head of the group in London, while Prakash – one of those targeted by Swiss justice – was left with the businesses they have in Monaco.
In the United Kingdom the family acquired valuable real estate properties.
In London they own the Raffles hotel, which opened in September 2023 and is located in the historic Old War Office building in Whitehall, the former Ministry of Defence, just a few meters from 10 Downing StreetForbes magazine reported.
They also own part of the exclusive Carlton House Terrace, a huge building that houses offices, residences and event rooms, and is located very close to Buckingham Palace. Hinduja Group claims to have 200,000 employees worldwide.
In June 2020, a court filing in the United Kingdom revealed that relations between the brothers were not as harmonious as previously thought. The documents showed that the late Srichand took on his younger brothers in court over the ownership of a bank in Geneva, Switzerland.
The clan is in the crosshairs of the Swiss authorities for six yearswhen he began to investigate them for the treatment they gave to the employees they had in their villa in the exclusive Cologny district in Geneva.
Last week the family got rid of one of the accusations against them (the one related to exploitation), after reaching a financial agreement with the alleged victims.
However, they still have the charge for human trafficking pending, for which the Swiss Prosecutor’s Office is asking five and a half years in prison for Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, and four for Ajay and Namrata.
The trial, which began on Monday, attracted press attention in both the United Kingdom and India due to the revelations made by investigators.
“ (The Hinduja) spent more on a dog than on one of their servants.”prosecutor Yves Bertossa denounced in court, Bloomberg reported.
The official revealed that one of the nannies earned only US$7.84 for an 18-hour workday, while documents obtained by his office titled “Pets” indicated that The family spent more than 9,000 Swiss francs (more than US$10,000) annually on feeding and caring for one of their dogs..
The prosecutor also claimed that the workers, several of whom had to work seven days a week, received their salaries in Indian rupees and not in Swiss francs, the Alpine country’s currency.
Lawyers for the Hinduja family did not deny the allegations of low wages, but said they had to include room and board, the BBC’s Geneva correspondent Imogen Foulkes reported.
“You cannot reduce (the concept of salary) simply to what they were paid in cash”declared lawyer Yael Hayat.
The charge of long, strenuous hours was also refuted, with one lawyer arguing that watching a movie with the kids couldn’t be considered work.
And as proof that their clients were not exploiters, the defenders pointed out that several of the alleged victims worked for the family on repeated occasions, which, in their opinion, showed that they were satisfied with their working conditions.
The defense also got some former employees to testify on behalf of the Hindujas, whom they described as a friendly family. that He treated his servants with dignity. Likewise, Hinduja representatives accused the prosecutor of cruelty and seeking notoriety with this case.
“No other family was treated this way,” stated one of the defense attorneys.
However, allegations that the workers had their passports confiscated and that they could not even leave home without permission are the main concern for the accused. The reason? In light of Swiss law this could be human trafficking. And for this reason, in addition to the prison sentences, prosecutor Bertossa is demanding more than US$1 million as a penalty and another US$4 million as compensation for staff.
The Hinduya case is not the first of its kind to be recorded in Geneva, the center of international organizations and the world’s rich.
In 2008, Hannibal Gaddafi, son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested at his five-star hotel in the Alpine city by police after it was reported that he and his wife had been beating their servants.
Although the case was closed, it sparked a huge diplomatic dispute between Switzerland and Libya, with two Swiss citizens arrested in Tripoli in retaliation. Just last year, four Filipino domestic workers sued one of the diplomatic missions to the United Nations, alleging that they had not been paid for years.
By BBC News World
BBC World
