Four members of the Hinduja family, the richest in the United Kingdom, heavily sentenced for the exploitation of the staff of their villa

Four members of the Hinduja family, one of the most powerful in India and the United Kingdom, were acquitted of human trafficking by a Swiss court on Friday June 21. However, they were sentenced to long prison terms for exploiting the Indian staff at their villa. The lawyers immediately announced that their clients, absent for the verdict, would appeal.

Despite an amicable and secret agreement reached during the trial with the three employees who prosecuted them, the Geneva courts did not let go of the case and decided to prosecute the four members of this family, who all have nationality Swiss.

The father, Prakash Hinduja (78), and his wife Kamal (75) were sentenced to prison terms of four years and six months, while their son Ajay (56) and daughter-in-law Namrata (50) ) are sentenced to prison terms of four years, indicated the president of the court in Geneva, Sabina Mascotto, in the absence of the four defendants.

The president did not mince her words regarding them: “The motives of the defendants are selfish” and they were motivated “by the lure of gain”. She added that their collaboration had been “bad”.

The Hinduja family is the richest in the United Kingdom according to Sunday Times, estimating his fortune this year at 37 billion pounds (48 billion euros). For its part, the magazine Forbes puts forward a figure of 20 billion dollars (18.7 billion euros). The salary of the Indian domestic staff at their villa around Geneva was between 220 (230 euros) and 400 francs per month, which is far below what a domestic worker can hope to earn in Switzerland.