May 20, 2007 11:02 pm US/Eastern
Grand Jury Subpoenas 3 Children In Slavery Case
Sabhnani Family Accused Of Keeping Indonesian Women As Prisoners
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (CBS/AP) ―
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed three children of a Long Island couple as witnesses in the case, in which their wealthy parents face charges of keeping two Indonesian women as prisoners in their home and subjecting them to abuse, the mother's lawyer says.
Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani and his wife, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, were arrested May 15 on a complaint by the two women that they had been kept prisoner in the family home where they were employed as domestic servants, one for five years and the other for two years.
Attorney Charles Ross said he had received the subpoenas, but told Newsday, "I don't know what the government is up to." The offspring could face punishment for contempt if they refused to testify.
Named in the subpoenas, according to the lawyer, were their children Pooja, 22, Tina, 20 and Dakshima, 19. A fourth child is a minor.
Prosecutors, calling it a case of "modern-day slavery," said the women, identified only as Samirah, 51, and Nona, 45, were subjected to beatings, scalding water and forced to spend hours climbing stairs and taking showers as punishment for purported misdeeds.
The Sabhnanis have pleaded not guilty to the charges, and are under home detention with electronic monitoring, their personal and business bank accounts frozen by court order.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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