Chesterfield couple sentenced for forced child labor at Robious Road gas station

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A divorced couple has been sentenced in federal court to several years in prison each for forcing one of their young relatives to work for over three years in the gas station and convenience store they ran together on Robious Road in Chesterfield County.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 31-year-old Harmanpreet Singh was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison and 43-year-old Kulbir Kaur was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison after both were convicted of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, harboring for financial gain and document servitude in January.

Evidence presented during the two-week trial demonstrated that, in 2018, the defendants convinced Singh’s cousin, who was a minor at the time, to travel to the United States from India by falsely promising to enroll him in school.

After he arrived in the United States, the defendants took the victim’s immigration documents from him and forced him to work in their store between 12 and 17 hours a day for minimal pay.

The defendants forced the victim to clean, cook, stock shelves and handle the cash register and store records through coercion and physical abuse. They also forced him to sleep in the back of the store for several days at a time, limited his access to food, refused to provide medical care or education and watched him with surveillance equipment in the store and in their home.

The defendants refused to give the victim his immigration documents back and let him return to India. They also forced him to marry Kaur and used the marriage to threaten to take his family’s property or falsely report him to the police if he tried to leave, according to court documents.

Evidence presented at trial also showed that, on three separate occasions, Singh threatened the victim with a revolver for trying to take a day off or for trying to leave.

“The crimes committed by these defendants are not merely violations of the law; they are an affront to humanity,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia. “These defendants preyed on the victim’s earnest desire to attain an education and improve his life. Instead, they deprived him of the most basic human needs and robbed him of his freedom. We remain steadfastly committed to securing justice for victims of human trafficking.”

Anyone with information about human trafficking is asked to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888.

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