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Four men indicted for human smuggling


By Noel S. Brady
Journal Reporter


KENT — Four south King County men are accused in a 30-count grand jury indictment, alleging that they ran a human smuggling operation to bring illegal immigrants from India across the Canadian border to Kent.

One of the men, Harchand Singh, remains at large and is believed to be with a teenage girl. He is wanted by federal agents in the operations that federal prosecutors say involved the rape of at last one of five Indian woman who were smuggled into the U.S. and dropped off at a hotel in Kent.

Singh was a Sikh priest at a temple in Renton, according to documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court. He is not the same Harchand Singh who is a Tukwila dentist.

The indictment alleges that the four men were part of a conspiracy to smuggle at least 10 Indian nationals from Mumbai, formerly Bombay, India. Some of the smuggled immigrants told investigators that they agreed to pay the organization $15,000 to $40,000 for assistance to enter the U.S. from Canada between April 23 and May 8.

The smugglers allegedly provided them with counterfeit Indian passports and counterfeit Canadian visas in order to enter Canada and organized their passage into Canada through Toronto, leading them to Vancouver and on to the U.S. border.

Rajpal Singh Padda, 36, of Kent, pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the U.S., during his initial court appearance Tuesday. Surinder Singh Sohal, 45, of Des Moines and David Matusicky, age and address unknown, both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

All three men remain in custody at a federal detention facility in SeaTac.

According to court documents, federal agents and King County sheriff's deputies were responding to a reported rape and kidnapping on May 27, when they met four Indian women who said they had escaped from a house in the 10400 block of 222nd Street in Kent.

Investigators later learned that Padda owned the house, and Harchand Singh was renting it, federal prosecutors said.

The women explained that on March 25 they arrived in Kent as part of a group of smuggled immigrants after being led on foot across the border. The women said they were dropped off and escorted by Sohal and Matusicky to a Howard Johnson Hotel on North Central Avenue.

One of the women, who was placed in a separate hotel room, told investigators that Padda took her from the hotel and drove her to a house and raped her, placing his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams.

The same woman said Harchand Singh then took her to another hotel and raped her. Afterward, court documents state, Singh threatened to again rape and kill her if she told anyone about the incident.

Singh then drove the woman to another house in the 10400 block of Southeast 222nd Street in Kent, where three of the other women were waiting, the documents state. After telling the others what she had been through, all four women escaped to the house and called the police.

The three women who were left at the Howard Johnson told police that Sohal also tried to sexually assault them.

A preliminary trial date for the three men in custody has been set for Aug. 21.

Anyone who has information about Harchand Singh or his whereabouts is asked to call 911.



Noel Brady can be reached at noel.brady@kingcountyjournal.com or 425-453-4252.



Last modified: June 15. 2006 12:00AM