The Hinduja family was acquitted within a day

 The Hinduja family was acquitted within a day: Prosecutors in maid abuse case withdraw charges, say - We were misled.

An Indian-origin businessman and Britain's richest Hinduja family was on Saturday (June 22) acquitted of all charges by a Swiss court. A day earlier on June 21, the lower court had sentenced four members of the Hinduja family to jail in the case of exploitation of servants.

Industrialist Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal Hinduja have been sentenced to four and a half years. While his son Ajay and daughter-in-law Namrata have been sentenced to four years. However, he was not detained. The family then challenged the decision in the High Court.

Now the spokesperson of the Hinduja family said that the High Court has rejected all the serious allegations. Prosecutors have withdrawn all charges, according to a spokesperson. Testifying in court, he said, "We were misled into signing statements we did not understand. We had no intention of doing so.

He was accused of exploiting the servants

The Hinduja family was accused of exploiting workers at their Swiss villa. Most of them were illiterate people of India. A lower court dismissed the charges of human trafficking, saying their staff had sufficient understanding of what they were doing.

All four members of the Hinduja family were not present in the court at the time of the verdict. However, his manager and 5th accused Najeeb Ziaji was present. He was also sentenced to 18 months.

Despite the agreement, the court did not close the case

According to the BBC, the Hinduja family settled with the prosecutors last week, but the court continued the case considering the seriousness of the matter. Prakash Hinduja was convicted on similar charges in 2007. Even after this he continued to hire staff without proper documents.

Before the sentencing, the Swiss authorities confiscated several assets belonging to the Hinduja family, including diamonds, rubies and platinum necklaces. This can be used to cover legal costs and fines.

Worked 18 hours a day without any leave

According to a Bloomberg report, the human trafficking case against the Hinduja family began in Switzerland on Monday (June 17). Lawyers appearing for the victims told the court that sometimes cooks or domestic helpers are forced to work 15 to 18 hours a day with little or no leave.

His salary was less than one-tenth of the amount prescribed under Swiss law. Staff worked late at reception and sometimes slept on mattresses on the floor in the villa's basement. As per the requirement of Hinduja family, he was required to be present at all times. The lawyer also referred to the atmosphere of fear created by Kamal Hinduja.

Spending four times more money on dogs than on jobs

Public prosecutor Yves Bertosa told the court that the Hinduja family spends more on their dog than on servants. Staff will be paid Rs. 654 ie annual Rs. 2.38 lakh was being paid, while the documents show that maintenance and feeding of the dog cost Rs. 8 lakh was spent.

The lawyer said that the passports of all these assistants have been confiscated. Many employees could only speak Hindi, so they could not go anywhere. They were paid in Indian rupees instead of Swiss francs, so that they could not go out and make any purchases. They are neither allowed to quit their jobs nor go out of the house.

The Hinduja family denied the allegations

However, the Hinduja family denied the allegations leveled against them. He said that he did not hire staff. An Indian company employs him, so the allegations of human trafficking and exploitation against him are false.

Along with this, the Hinduja family claimed that the government lawyers did not tell the full truth of the case. Adequate food arrangements were made for the staff in his villa. They were also given a house to live in.

The Hinduja family's lawyer claimed in court that many of their staff have returned to work in Switzerland after leaving for India. If they had faced a problem here why would they have come here again to work.

Hinduja is the richest man in Britain

The Hinduja family runs their business from Britain. This family is included in the list of the richest people in the world. According to Forbes, the net worth of the Hinduja family in 2023 was $20 billion. The Hindujas are Britain's richest family.

Gopi Hinduja of the Hinduja family is Britain's richest person. He is included in the list of top 200 richest people in the world. Hinduja Group's business is in Telecom, Oil & Gas, Power & Infrastructure, Realty, Auto, Healthcare etc.

Hinduja Group was founded 110 years ago Hinduja Group was founded in 1914 by Parmanand Dipchand Hinduja in Mumbai. He had four sons. This family of four sons runs the Hinduja Group. The family business is currently run by four Hinduja brothers - Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok. Srichand Hinduja passed away on May 17 last year.

Hinduja Group's office was shifted to Iran in 1919. After this the business of Hinduja Group continued till 1979. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the situation there changed, after which the Hinduja Group had to shift to London. Hinduja Group's business is spread across nearly 50 countries and employs more than 1.5 lakh employees. The group has six listed companies in India.​​​​​​​

The name was also involved in the Bofors scam

The names of Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja also surfaced in the Bofors scam. In this scam, the Swedish company Bofors was accused of paying a bribe of 1.3 billion dollars to the Indian government in 1986. The three brothers helped in this. The CBI had framed the charges against the three brothers in October 2000, but in 2005, a Delhi court dismissed all charges against them for lack of evidence.

A unique rule of the Hinduja family

Four years ago, the news of a rift in the Hinduja family also surfaced. Actually, the reason for this was the agreement between the family in 2014. According to the agreement, 'everyone has rights to the assets of the Hinduja Group and nothing else.' It means that property owned by one brother of a Hinduja family will also be owned by other brothers. Each person shall appoint the other as his executor.

The agreement was signed by all four brothers, but later the daughters of Srichand Hinduja, the eldest member of the Hinduja family, wanted out of the agreement. He also filed an application in the court for this.

Srichand Hinduja's daughters alleged that their uncles had separated them from the family. They have been made extremely weak economically. At the same time, Srichand Hinduja's other brothers accused these two sisters of usurping all the assets.