According to the prosecutor's statement, the accused Indian citizen was the founder and leader of the organized group. He allegedly organized the recruitment of two Indian citizens for forced labor in Latvia. The accused offered the victims to work as cooks in an Indian restaurant in Latvia.
Knowing the victims' difficult material circumstances and using deception - the accused offered them good profit opportunities, promised them good living conditions and free food, and offered to help them with their visas - he allegedly demanded that they pay him €10,000. The accused also organized the opening of a company and an Indian restaurant in Latvia for the labor exploitation of the recruited persons.
The accused Indian citizen approached a woman known to him to join the organized group, offering her to register a company and open a restaurant where the recruited persons would be subjected to labor exploitation upon arrival in Latvia, to which she reportedly agreed and became a member of the organized group.
After some time, another woman joined the organized group and was in charge of the company's legal affairs and accounting.
According to Latvian Television, the accused are Tatjana Čertova, owner and former board member of AMAR SINGH Ltd, Natālija Marčevska, lawyer and accountant of the company, and Amar Singh, an Indian citizen. The company owns the restaurant "Namaste" on Spulgas Street, Rīga. The company has had no official representatives since May 14 this year.
Marčevska was the founder, owner, and board member of AMAR SINGH from April 2022 to October 2023, while Čertova is the current owner.
The accused took care of all the necessary documents and arranged for the transfer of the recruited Indian nationals from India to Latvia. When the recruits arrived in Latvia, the accused took away all their identity documents and made them work as cooks in the restaurant and cleaned the restaurant premises.
The recruits worked without days off for no less than 16 hours a day, were not paid the promised wages and lived in the restaurant premises without being able to comply with minimum hygiene requirements.
The accused threatened to send them back to India if they did not comply, threatened to kill them, and subjected them to physical abuse, according to the statement.
The Prosecutor's Office notes that, thanks to successful and close cooperation with several institutions, the criminal proceedings resulted in the prosecution of the persons concerned, the conclusion of the pre-trial criminal proceedings and the transfer of the criminal case to court. The institutions involved were the State Labor Inspectorate, which inspected the restaurant and found gross irregularities, the association "Shelter "Safe House"", which provided long-term assistance to the Indian victims because they did not speak any foreign languages, had no means of subsistence and no place to live, and the State Police, which successfully carried out the procedural steps.
As it was established during the investigation that the trafficking in human beings was committed in the interests of a legal person, proceedings were also initiated to impose a coercive measure on the legal person.
The Prosecutor's Office points out that trafficking in human beings is a serious violation of human rights - a form of modern slavery achieved by criminally exploiting the psychological, economic or social vulnerability or helplessness of persons.
Two organizations provide social rehabilitation services to victims of human trafficking: the association "Centrs MARTA" and the association "Shelter Safe House".
