A Gujarat man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in the United States for paying human traffickers to sexually assault a minor girl at a hotel in Nebraska.

The 27-year-old accused, identified as Kavankumar Patel, was working at the Americinn Hotel in Omaha at the time of the incident. Patel was living in the US illegally and will be deported after completing his sentence.

How the case unfolded

The investigation began on January 6, 2025, when police responded to a theft complaint and uncovered evidence of sex trafficking activities at the hotel.

According to an NDTV report, officials from the Homeland Security Task Force and the Omaha Police Department later found two minor girls, aged 15 and 16, who had allegedly been brought from another state for commercial sexual exploitation.

"The two minor females reported that their traffickers had instructed that the minors must engage in sex with hotel staff for a reduced room rate or they would be kicked out of the hotel. Two hotel employees paid the trafficker to have sex with one of the minors, and a third hotel employee had sex with the other minor," the US Attorney's Office in Nebraska said in a statement on Thursday.

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Investigators said Patel confirmed that he used money from the hotel drawer to pay the traffickers to have sex with one of the minors at the hotel. The hotel employees then permitted the traffickers and minors to remain at the hotel for multiple days.

Traffickers posted online advertisements

Authorities also revealed that the traffickers would post online advertisements for commercial sex and arrange commercial sex acts involving the minor victims. The minors reported having little food and feeling like they had no choice but to engage in sex acts as directed.

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The traffickers were identified as Eduardo Jose Perdomo, Michel Martinez-Gonzalez and Alfredo Zambrano-Hurtado, and the two other Indian-origin hotel employees named Sumit Chaudhari and Vishal Goswami have also been charged.