Indian national convicted of sexual harassment of female employee in US; Father and son arrested in Canada

A 70-year-old Indian American citizen has been convicted on multiple charges in the US. The US Department of Justice has given information by issuing a statement in this regard. It states that the 70-year-old Indian-American national worked as a motel manager. She has been convicted of human trafficking in connection with enslavement of the victim, involuntary servitude and forced labor and commercial sex acts. The US Justice Department gave this information.

The convicted citizen is Shrish Tiwari, who is a legal permanent resident of the United States. He ran a motel in Cartersville, Georgia. He hired the victim as a house cleaner in a motel. He had admitted that he abused his position and power and forced the female tenant to engage in commercial sexual acts.

According to the statement, he knew that the victim was homeless. Along with this, she was battling heroin addiction and had lost custody of her young child. The accused had promised the victim that he would give her salary and an apartment to live in. Also will help her to get the custody of her child through a lawyer. US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan told that instead of fulfilling his promises, he had proposed to have a physical relationship with the victim. For not doing so, he also threatened the victim.

Legal officials said his sentence would be decided on September 6. A convicted Tiwari could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, as well as a fine of US$250,000. A federal judge will determine any sentence based on US sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

Indian-origin father-son duo arrested in Canada
An Indian-origin father-son duo has been arrested in Canada. It is alleged that the duo had allegedly harassed and exploited several teenage girls over a period of several months. Following the arrest, the Calgary Police issued a statement b regarding this. It said Gurpratap Singh Walia (56) and his son Sumit Walia (24) were arrested in April following an investigation to trace a missing 13-year-old girl.

Later, the girl had revealed that she was in a relationship with Sumit. Sumit allegedly provided her with alcohol, drugs and vapes in exchange for sex. The police also informed that the father-son duo were the owners of Hayden Convenience Store. When the case was further investigated, authorities learned that the father and son were providing vapes, marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol to several other teenage girls. Along with this, they were also sexually harassing them. It is being said that these incidents have happened between December 2022 and May 2023. The police had arrested both the accused on June 1.

During a search of his home following his arrest, police seized 975 grams of cocaine, child pornography, drugs, contraband tobacco, vapes and a computer, among other things. Both have been charged with making child pornography, illegal possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics for trafficking, extortion, intimidation