An Indian-American couple has been imprisoned for forcing their relative to work at their gas station and convenience store. The accused, Harmanpreet Singh (31) and Kulbir Kaur (43), exploited the victim’s desire for education and a better life to coerce him into labor at their business.
The court sentenced Harmanpreet Singh to 11.25 years in prison and Kulbir Kaur to 7.25 years. Additionally, they were ordered to pay $225,210.76 in restitution to Singh’s cousin, the victim. The couple has since divorced.
US Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia said “they deprived him of basic human needs and his freedom.”
“The defendants exploited their relationship with the victim to lure him to the United States with false promises that they would help enrol him in school,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
The trial revealed that in 2018, Singh and Kaur lured the victim, who was then a minor, from India to the US with false promises of enrolling him in school. Once he arrived, they confiscated his immigration documents and forced him to work at Singh’s store from March 2018 to May 2021.
The victim was made to clean, cook, stock shelves, and handle the cash register and store records for 12 to 17 hours a day, almost every day, for very little pay.
“The defendants confiscated the victim’s immigration documents and subjected him to threats, physical force and mental abuse to coerce him to work long hours for minimal pay,” she said.
The couple used various coercive tactics, including physical abuse, threats, and degrading living conditions, to keep the victim working. They made him sleep in a back office, limited his access to food, denied him medical care and education, and monitored him with surveillance equipment.
They also refused his requests to return to India and made him overstay his visa. Additionally, they forced the victim to marry Kaur and used this marriage to threaten his family’s properties and falsely report him to the police if he tried to leave.
“This sentence should send a strong message that such forced labour will not be tolerated in our communities,” she added.
