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Judge Arthur D. Spatt from the Federal District Court in New
York revoked on Thursday the bail for millionaire Varsha Sabhnani, wife of Indian
born millionaire Mahender Sabhnani.
The woman had been convicted on Monday for torture,
involuntary servitude, conspiracy and harboring illegal residents. Her husband
remained free until both of them will be given a sentence on March 28, on a $4.5
million bail.
The millionaire couple, both U.S. citizens, with
multimillion-dollar perfume business, was convicted of 12 charges and face up
to 40 years in prison. The Monday verdict came as a shock for the 45-year-old
woman, who had to be hospitalized afterwards.
According to the prosecutors, the couple brought two Indonesian
women to the United States and promised them $200 a month for housekeeping. But
things turned into a “modern day slavery”, how the prosecutors called it, and
the two women, identified as Samirah, age 51, and Enung, age 47, testified
against the Sabhnanis.
In their testimonies, the Indonesian women said they were
forced by the two to work over 18 hours a day, with little food or money, and
they were tortured in unimaginable ways: scalded with hot water, forced to eat
hot chili peppers and take freezing cold showers.
Defense lawyers for the Sabhnanis tried to argue that the
women were lying and were delusional, but that was less likely to impress the
judge. Samirah had been found wondering the streets dressed in nothing but a
pair of pants and a towel, after managing to escape the Muttontown residence of
the multimillionaire couple.
After telling all about the atrocities she had been
submitted to by Varsha Sabhnani, the authorities started their search for
Enung, who was found hiding in a closet at the Sabhnani residence.
Defense lawyers announced they planned to appeal to the
court’s decision.
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