• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Grand Jury Subpoenas 3 Children In Slavery Case

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +    Comments
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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.)

Add Comment

  •  * Will not be displayed with comment
  •  * e.g. (http://www.mywebsite.com)
  •  
  • Click here to refresh with new letters

Show Comments (0)

Close Window Login


Close Window Flag Comment


loading...
You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Top Stories

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.