Indian Motel Manager In Georgia Jailed For Human Trafficking: Details So Far

An Indian motel manager in Georgia has been arrested for trafficking a woman for peonage and slavery. He has been sentenced to 57 months in jail and has been ordered to pay USD 40,000 to seven people as restitution. The 71-year-old manager named Shreesh Tiwari had hired the woman as a maid to work at the motel, where he exploited her based on her traumatic past and also sexually abused her. 

Court documents reveal that Tiwari, an Indian national and legal US permanent resident, took charge of the Budgetel Motel in 2020.

False Promises and Manipulation

Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta said that Tiwari misused the woman's difficult past of homelessness and drug abuse to extort and torture her. The woman had earlier struggled with homelessness and heroin addiction and lost custody of her young child. Making use of this difficult past, Tiwari promised the woman to buy her a flat and give her custody of her child by paying money and hiring an attorney. He had already provided a room to the woman in the motel while hiring her. 

Systematic Abuse of Power

However, he didn't keep his promise. Rather, he barred her from speaking to people at the motel. He also stopped her from speaking to her family by falsely claiming that they didn't care about her. According to the prosecutors, Tiwari also made sexual advances to her and threatened to evict her from the room he provided her to live in the motel. He asked her to perform sexual acts with him. If she denied it, he used to evict her from the room in the middle of the night without informing her over the prior notice.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said, “Human trafficking can occur anywhere since traffickers are adept at identifying someone's vulnerabilities and often fraudulently extend hope to someone looking for an opportunity to improve their dire circumstances." 

US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia said that Tiwari misused his power to "ruthlessly abuse" a woman he already knew had suffered a lot. “The level of this defendant's callousness is shocking," he added. But he is thankful that the community is safer now and that other people who could have been caught in this vicious web have been spared.

"Our office also intends for Tiwari's prosecution and sentence to provide a stark warning to other traffickers,” he added. 

While justice has been served, the profound impact on the victim's life raises questions about the broader issue of human trafficking and the need for continued vigilance.