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A Call to Action

Groups gather to remember death of Pratipatti

Signs are held aloft by protestors gathered to honor the death of Chanti Pratipatti, a 17-year-old girl who died last year after being illegally brought the United States. Photo by Neela Banerjee.

By Neela Banerjee

One year after the death of 17-year-old Chanti Pratipatti that brought to light the alleged immigrant trafficking operation of Berkeley landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy and his family, some 100 community members and South Asian American activists gathered to honor her memory and speak out against sexual and labor exploitation.

“Our presence demonstrates that we as a community will continue to stand against this kind of injustice,” San Francisco attorney and event organizer Kavitha Sreeharsha said.

In the year since Pratipatti and her sister were found poisoned by carbon monoxide from a faulty heater, Reddy, his sons and other family members have been indicted on charges of conspiring to illegally bring nearly 50 immigrants from India to work in the family’s restaurants and apartment complexes for little or no pay. Reddy, who owns over 1,000 apartments units in Berkeley, is worth over $50 million according to legal documents.

The family is also charged with falsifying immigration documents and bringing in supposed high-tech workers and their dependents on H1-B visas to work at Active Tech Solutions, a Berkeley company owned by Reddy’s son, Vijay.

Pratipatti’s 20-year-old sister and a roommate survived the carbon monoxide leak and are now under federal protection.

The Reddy family is being charged with importing of aliens for immoral purposes and false statements on a tax return. Reddy and his son are also accused of the transportation of minors for illegal sexual activity. Over the past year evidence such as that which found Pratipatti pregnant when she died and testimonies from the surviving victims further supports accusations that Reddy had sexually exploited the girls.

Reddy and his family tried to settle out of court last October but after active protests from the media and the community, Oakland Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ordered a public hearing set for Feb. 6, 2001. Both Reddy and his son are free on bail until the trial. Combined, their bail was set at nearly $11 million.

Conviction on all charges would make Reddy eligible for a maximum sentence of 70 years in prison and $1 million in fines.

Lawyers representing the Pratipatti family have filed a wrongful death suit against Reddy. The American Civil Liberties Union is planning a class action suit against the Reddy family that will encompass all their criminal charges.

Pratipatti’s death and the ensuing media blitz that labeled the case as a “sex scandal” brought together local community activists and South Asian American activists from across the Bay Area who organized a series of protests and boycotts outside of Pasand restaurants, which Reddy owns, in both Berkeley and Santa Clara.

The case also spurred the formation of a group of South Asian activists who call themselves the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA). “We formed directly in response to the Reddy case because this case reaches across so many levels and brought together people who are working with issues of immigration, sexual violence, labor issues,” Sreeharsha said.

ASATA and other activists have had a strong presence at all of Reddy’s trial dates and have also been working to educate and organize in the Bay Area’s South Asian American community to tackle violence and oppression.

“We formed because this is the first time something like this has come out in our community,” ASATA member Amisha Patel said. “And the level of activism that ASATA has been able to maintain is really incredible and the hope is that it will continue.”

Patel said that people in the community had been hearing rumors about Reddy’s actions for years. “It is not the norm but now it is clear that problems like this really do exist here.”

Bay Area South Asian American domestic violence organizations Maitri and Narika have been working with the victims to provide services and raise funds for their legal fees.

Saturday’s vigil, organized by ASATA, was held at the request of the victims and was taped as a message of support to these women.

A large, mostly South Asian American crowd quickly gathered in front of Pasand Madras Cuisine located on Shattuck Street in downtown Berkeley. ASATA members worked quickly to hand out informative flyers to anyone passing by the restaurant and told them about the vigil and the charges against Reddy, turning more than a few people away.

“We want to show Reddy and everyone else that as a community we condemn his actions, both in terms of the sexual and labor allegations,” Sreeharsha said at the vigil.

Chic Dabby, head of the East Bay domestic violence organization Narika, urged people attending the vigil to remember Pratipatti and her death as a galvanizing force for the community.

“None of us really knew [Pratipatti],” Dabby said. “All we know is that her life was short and bitter at the end. We may have failed [Pratipatti] but not her sister. We must take the victim’s pain and turn it into the survivor’s strength.”

Other speakers highlighted the importance of organizing around sexual and labor exploitation issues, arguing against the labeling of this case as a sex scandal. “For sex,” read one ASATA flyer, “you need consent. It is not possible to truly give consent to someone who controls your entire existence.”

For ASATA member Shaily Matani, the Reddy case had a larger implication. “When I first heard about this case, I was immediately concerned yet also wary because of the stereotypes of an immigrant man of color being labeled as corrupt,” she said. “But since then we have all realized that Reddy needs to be accountable,” Matani added. She spoke about how the members of ASATA tried outreaching to other workers who are caught up in the Reddy case and often faced fear that reached back thousands of miles to Reddy’s influence in India.

“But I am really concerned about the larger picture. I am concerned about the number of times we have been asked if this is due to our culture,” Matani said. “We reply to that — that this exploitation happens across the globe.”

Matani continued that unless the larger community addresses the problem of illegal trafficking that “other Reddys will start popping up one after the other.”

ASATA members are also concerned about the way the government is handling the immigration aspect of the case, especially since the INS and the police were said to have collaborated, which means there is little protection for the exploited workers — who may face deportation now.

ACLU attorney Jayashri Srikantiah

ACLU attorney Jayashri Srikantiah said that the ACLU has tried two major trafficking cases in the last few years in Los Angeles and New York.

“A 1999 study showed that over 50 thousand women and children were trafficked to the United States in that year alone,” Srikantiah said. “It is a major problem.”

Supporters ended the night by singing a Hindi song about the strength of activists and offered a moment of silence for Pratipatti.

“We are here to honor [Pratipatti],” Matani said. “Honor these victims and make a call for help and participation to fight these oppressions that affect us all.”