Couple feels guilty of physically abusing
Atlanta sources reported that after an 11 day trial, a federal jury found Satish Kartan, 45, and his wife, Sharmistha Barai, 40, guilty on March 14 of physically abusing, exploiting and threatening workers they hired from India and Nepal under false pretenses. Meanwhile according to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between February 2014 and October 2016, Kartan and Barai hired workers from India and Nepal to perform domestic labor in their home in Stockton.
Furthermore in advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the defendants made false claims regarding the wages and the duties of employment and then, once the workers arrived at the defendants’ Stockton residence, Kartan and Barai forced them to work 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment. Few of them were paid any wage.
Moreover the defendants kept their domestic workers from leaving and induced them to keep working for them by threatening them, by creating an atmosphere of fear, control, and dis empowerment, and at times by physically hitting or burning them. Apparently Kartan and Barai are scheduled to be sentenced on June 6. Each defendant data-faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.