An Indian-American couple has been sentenced by a US court for forcing their relative to work at their gas station and convenience store for more than three years. They had brought him to the United States under the false pretense of enrolling him in school.

Harmanpreet Singh, aged 31, received a 135-month (11.25 years) prison sentence, while Kulbir Kaur, aged 43, was sentenced to 87 months (7.25 years). The court also ordered them to pay $225,210.76 (approximately Rs 1.87 crore) in restitution to the victim, who is their cousin.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated that the defendants used their relationship with the victim to bring him to the United States under false pretenses of assisting him with school enrollment.

She further noted that they seized the victim’s immigration papers and used threats, physical coercion, and psychological mistreatment to force him into working extensive hours for inadequate compensation.

‘This sentence should convey a strong message that our communities will not tolerate such forced labor,’ she emphasized.

Jessica D. Aber, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, described how the defendants exploited the victim’s earnest desire for education and betterment.

Instead, they denied him basic human needs and stripped away his freedom, Aber explained.

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During the trial, evidence showed that in 2018, the defendants lured Singh’s cousin, then a minor, to the US from India with false promises of enrolling him in school, according to the Department of Justice.

Once in the US, the defendants seized his immigration documents and compelled him to work at Singh’s store for over three years, from March 2018 to May 2021.

The victim was coerced into working long hours—between 12 and 17 hours daily—performing tasks such as cleaning, cooking, stocking, operating the cash register, and managing store records, for minimal pay, the trial evidence revealed.

The defendants used various coercive methods, including confiscating his immigration documents, physical abuse, threats of force, and other serious harm, as well as subjecting him to degrading living conditions, to keep him working, the evidence indicated.

On multiple occasions, the couple forced the victim to sleep in a back office at the store for days, restricted his access to food, denied medical care and education, monitored him with surveillance equipment both at the store and at home, ignored his pleas to return to India, and caused him to overstay his visa, according to the evidence.

The defendants compelled the victim into marriage with Kaur, exploiting it as leverage to threaten seizing the victim’s family properties or falsely reporting him to the police if he attempted to leave.

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Additionally, evidence indicated that Singh physically assaulted the victim by pulling his hair, slapping, and kicking him whenever he sought the return of his immigration documents or attempted to depart. On three separate occasions, Singh menaced the victim with a revolver for attempting to take time off or for trying to leave.