Indian-origin couple jailed for enslaving woman in Australia hit with fresh penalty, lose home proceeds

said in a press release on Friday.

An Australian court in 2021 convicted Kannan and Kumuthini for enslaving a woman from India who had entered Australia on a tourist visa and sentenced them to six and eight years of imprisonment, respectively.

AFP's Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) restrained the couple's house in Mount Waverley in 2016 after they were charged with slavery offences, the release said.

The house was sold for AUD 1.4 million in 2016. After paying the mortgage and sale expenses, Kannan and Kumuthi's equity in the property of about AUD 475,000 was held by the Official Trustee and restrained before its forfeiture in 2022.

About AUD 485,000 was granted to the victim in 2023 as an ex gratia payment, the release said.

The CACT also sought pecuniary penalty orders against the offenders for benefits obtained from the crime. In October this year, the woman agreed to pay AUD 100,000, and the man agreed to pay AUD 40,000, in addition to the forfeited equity and accrued interest.

According to the case report uploaded on the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution (CDPP) website, the victim, who the jury concluded was the Kannans’ slave, arrived in Melbourne from Tamil Nadu in 2007 on a one-month tourist visa.

Before the victim's departure, an oral agreement was made by the Kannans outlining the domestic services they expected her to provide at their Mount Waverley home.

The victim's travel costs and visa were organised and paid for by the Kannans, and upon arrival, they took her passport.

The victim lived at the Kannan family home for eight years, until she was taken to the hospital in 2015. During those years, she cared for the offenders’ children and undertook a variety of household chores.

In July 2015, an emergency call was made requesting an ambulance to attend the home, where paramedics found the victim lying barely conscious in a pool of urine on the bathroom floor. She was in a perilous state of health, weighed 40 kg and was suffering hypothermia, altered consciousness, urinary sepsis and untreated type 2 diabetes.

The Kannans gave false and conflicting accounts to medical staff and police about the victim’s name, their relationship with her, the nature of her stay in Australia and the whereabouts of identifying documents such as her passport.

The conflicting accounts resulted in the matter being referred to the AFP’s Human Trafficking team, and an investigation commenced shortly thereafter.

In August 2015, the victim’s family in India, concerned about her welfare, contacted the Australian High Commission in India and the Indian High Commission in Canberra.

Subsequently, Victoria Police visited the Kannans’ home to check on the welfare of the victim, who at that time had been admitted to hospital under a false name.

A search warrant was executed at the Kannans' home in October 2015, and the couple were arrested in September 2016.

During the trial, the victim told the court that she had been subjected to physical and verbal abuse and had been largely confined to the Kannans’ house, including during their annual trips to India.

The victim also told the authorities that she had asked the Kannans to return her to India, but was refused. The victim’s communication with her family was also limited and only allowed in the presence of the Kannans.