When Lakireddy Bali Reddy pleaded guilty to charges that he smuggled Indians into the US for cheap labor and village girls to be his sex slaves, his son Vijay Kumar Lakireddy shook as he wept and clasped his ears in the court audience.

On Tuesday, Vijay and his brother Prasad Lakireddy listened with shock as they were read the indictment against them: 15 added counts totaling 115 years in prison and $ 3.75 million in fines for Vijay, and nine new counts and $ 2.25 million in fines for Prasad.

Who will weep for the Reddy brothers?

Both had defiantly claimed their innocence in the sordid case, even though their father meekly admitted his guilt in March.

The senior Reddy, 63, was sentenced to a possible seven years in prison without parole and ordered to pay $ 2 million in restitution to his victims -- a plea bargain that seemed like a slap on the wrist to many of his detractors.

Also under the plea bargain Vijay, 31, faced conspiracy, importing aliens for sex and making false statements, which would have meant 20 years in prison, and $ 750,000 in fines. Prasad, 42, was charged with one conspiracy count and faced only five years in prison. However, they opted out of the pre-trial deal last December.

The 15 new counts against Vijay include travel with intent to have sex with a minor, bringing aliens into the country illegally and for sex, visa fraud and making false statements to a federal agency. Prasad now shares some of the charges against Vijay.

In the severity of the indictment, the error of their defiance has revealed itself.

"I think they are unhappy they didn't go with the plea bargain," Prasad's lawyer Paul Wolf told reporters.

Not a hint of swagger could be found in the Reddys, unlike the confidence shown only in January by Prasad, interviewed by rediff.com at Pasand, the family-owned Berkeley restaurant.

"I am a man, I can take it," he said at the time. "If you let yourself fall down, then other people will come along and kick you... I have a good conscience, I am not afraid."

Lawyers for the Reddys denied the indictment entirely.

"The charges are untrue," said George Cotsirilos, who represents Vijay. "My concern is whether (Vijay) can get an impartial jury now."

Opponents of the Reddy family, though, were pleased with the indictment.

The American Civil Liberties Union's Jayashri Srikantiah announced her organization's support. "We believe that today's indictment begins to reveal the broad range of abuse that the victims suffered at the hands of Prasad and Vijay Lakireddy," she wrote. "We call on the US Attorney's office to vigorously prosecute (them), and to continue its investigation into the Lakireddy family’s trafficking scheme."

The ACLU had spoken before about the scale of the case, and how little of the crimes committed by the Reddys had come out during pre-trial hearings.

In Tuesday's indictment, the US Attorney presented a more detailed account of the slave labor-and-sex slave smuggling ring that the Reddy family allegedly operated.

The number of victims was expanded to seven -- only four were mentioned when Reddy pleaded guilty. The new charges allege that the brothers had sex with all of them; their ages were from 11 to 17.

The charges are that these girls would first work in the Reddy estate in his Andhra Pradesh village of Velvadam. They would live in his home, and forced to have sex whenever they were there.

The Reddys began bringing some of the girls into the US in 1986. They would allegedly make them pose as wives and daughters of other Indians sponsored by the Reddys to work in their businesses. Once in the US, the indictment alleged the girls were "scolded, belittled, threatened, beaten and raped."

The scheme came to light after two such girls were found unconscious in an apartment owned by Reddy. Chanti Prattipati, 17, and her younger sister were overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning on November 24, 1999. Chanti, whom the police say was 10 days pregnant with Reddy's child, died. Her sister, though, survived.

A local high school newspaper dug into the story, and asked why the girl was not in school. Their story, and anonymous tips, led to an investigation of Reddy and his arrest last year on January 14.

It was the beginning of the end for Reddy, who had built up a real estate empire of more than 1,000 rental units in the East Bay Area since arriving there in 1961. His properties are now worth more than $ 50 million, and he collects more than $ 1 million in rent from tenants each month, not counting income from his commercial properties or his Pasand restaurants in Berkeley and Santa Clara.

Reddy's sentencing date was set for Tuesday, but for reasons unexplained, it was pushed back until June 19.

Despite the negative publicity the family has received (protests in front of the Pasand were a regular occurrence before Reddy pleaded guilty) they still have their supporters.

"I consider Reddy a good man," said Dinesh Sastry, a law student and political aspirant. Sastry said he "grew up with (Reddy's) sons and that (his) father knew Reddy since the 1960s."

Sastry was upset that "nobody came to the Reddys's defence... no one was on his side." He said he knew Reddy as a charitable man, who "helped hundreds of poor people and homeless in Berkeley," he explained.

Sastry, who has organized $ 1 million-dollar fundraisers for the Democratic Party in Silicon Valley, said he didn't believe the charges of indentured slavery leveled at Reddy.

"Nobody who worked for him was exploited," he said. "He gave his workers free food, free apartments, and paid them definitely above market value," Sastry continued. "He paid for their weddings, for their schooling... families would come to us in India, and ask us to refer them to Reddy."

But when quizzed about the charges of sexual slavery brought against Reddy, Sastry would say little. "I have no idea about the allegations of sex… Reddy did not make a living off prostitution," he said.

Commenting on the case, ACLU counsel Meera Trehan said its members are disappointed and surprised at "the defendants' failure to accept responsibility, in light of considerable evidence and, their co-conspirator’s guilty pleas."

Design: Lynette Menezes

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