Divorced couple sentenced to prison for forcing younger cousin to work

Harmanpreet Singh and Kulbir Kaur, who are divorced, each were sentenced to years in prison on Tuesday for forcing a relative to work at their gas station for three years for minimal pay. After a two-week trial in January, a federal jury found the couple guilty on several charges of forced labor, document servitude, and harboring an employee’s pay for financial gain. The court sentenced Singh to just over 11 years in prison and Kaur to more than 7 years. The court also ordered them to pay the victim more than $225,000 in restitution.

How did the couple do this? The couple persuaded Singh’s 17-year-old cousin to travel to the United States from India by promising they would help enroll him in school, prosecutors said. Instead, the couple took away the cousin’s immigration documents and forced him to work 12-17 hours per day in their gas station from March 2018 to May 2021. They made him cook, clean, manage the cash register, and keep the store’s books.

The couple often abused Singh’s cousin physically, limited his access to food, and sometimes forced him to sleep in the store for days at a time, prosecutors said. Whenever he tried to leave, take a day off, or request his immigration documents, Singh physically abused him or threatened him with guns.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about the State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons report.