3 in-laws guilty in labor trafficking case

Three members of a suburban family were convicted yesterday in the case of an Indian woman who complained that her arranged marriage turned into one of brutality and forced servitude.

"They brought her from India to be their servant or slave," said Assistant District Attorney Arthur Ferraro after the verdict.

Rockland County Judge William Nelson found the 25-year-old woman's mother-in-law and sister-in-law guilty of labor trafficking and assault in the nonjury trial. He found that Parveen Jagota, 57, and Rajani Jagota, 31, had hidden the woman's green card, passport and other documents, which forced her to do their bidding.

The judge also found that they used threats and violence, such as slapping her and pulling her hair, to keep her in servitude in the Jagotas' New City household.

The assault conviction was for burning the woman with an iron. Ferraro said the woman, whose name was not made public, "hadn't finished her work for the day so they decided to teach her a lesson by burning her."

The victim's husband, Vishal Jagota, 34, was also convicted of assault, for biting her. Her father-in-law, 62, was acquitted of touching her sexually.

Ferraro said the convictions may have been the first in New York for labor trafficking within a household. A law that took effect in 2007 is usually applied in cases of illegal immigrants working in substandard conditions.

The plaintiff testified for five days.

Defense attorneys had claimed the woman was lying to get out of the arranged marriage of three years. She and the defendants were natives of India and she barely knew her husband before the marriage.

The judge scheduled sentencing for May 22. The trafficking conviction carries a maximum sentence of about 2 to 7 years in prison.