4 victims in human trafficking case flee U.S.

Four of the eight human trafficking victims brought from India to Gwinnett County to perform in a nightclub have left the country, police said Wednesday.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said he is looking into whether the victims were coerced to leave to stifle the prosecution of the club operators.

“The allegations are that it was perfomed by an agent of the defendants and initiated by one of their attorneys,” Porter said.

The disappearance of crucial witnesses came to light Wednesday during a probable cause hearing for four men charged with human trafficking: Shifiqat Muhammad Ali, 26, of Birmingham, Vijay Kamal Bannerjee, 26, of Lilburn, Govino K. Vishwa, of Lilburn, and Farrukh Khan, of Hoover, Ala.

Police said the suspects were keeping six exotic dancers and two band members from India locked away inside a two-story house in Lilburn. The imported entertainers worked up to 14 hours a day at Mehfil Bar, Grill & Entertainment in Norcross and never collected the amounts of money they were promised, police said.

Lead detective Matt Lake of the Lilburn Police Department said an agent from the club came to the victims’ house on Saturday. Lake said the performers told him they were offered $850 and a plane ticket home if they agreed to go immediately to the airport in a provided limousine. If not, the man told them they would get nothing, Lake said.

Four performers left.

Defense attorneys Manubir Arora and Max Hirsh, who represent Kahn and Ali respectively, said the “rumor” that victims were coerced to leave is false.

Hirsh also argued that there was nothing illegal about the club’s arrangement with the performers, because the performers signed contracts spelling out the work conditions in advance.

“This is a cultural issue, not a criminal issue,” Hirsh said. “These women were making three times what they could make in India. They were getting paid a low, but fair and legal U.S. salary.”

Magistrate Judge Gene Cantrell denied bond and found probable cause to bind over charges of human trafficking to Superior Court.