US minor sex trafficking case: Gujarat woman watched minors being abused live on hidden hotel cameras

Ahmedabad: A federal investigation into a sex trafficking racket involving two minor girls at a Nebraska hotel took a darker turn when federal agents uncovered a highly invasive surveillance setup inside the hotel rooms. Investigators revealed that Falguni Choudhary, the wife of Gujarati hotelier Ketan alias Ken Choudhary, allegedly used hidden cameras to watch live footage of the trafficked underage girls being sexually exploited inside her properties.A routine police investigation into a minor theft complaint at AmericInn in Jan 2025 exposed the trafficking network operating across the US. A federal court has now sentenced Gujarat native Kavankumar Patel to 10 years in prison without parole after being convicted on two counts of sex trafficking of minors. The 27-year-old, who was working illegally at the AmericInn hotel in Omaha, faces immediate deportation to India upon completing his prison term.Meanwhile, a hotel employee testified to federal authorities that Falguni would sit and monitor the secret recordings “as casually as one watches a soap opera”. The victims, two American teenagers aged 15 and 16, were kept under coercive conditions with limited food, constant threats of starvation, and warnings that they would be evicted if they did not submit to hotel staff and clients.The probe by the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) led to raids on four Nebraska hotels linked to the Choudharys, resulting in their arrests and the seizure of $565,000 (Rs 5.4 crore approx) in cash. It also led HSTF to a broader network, allegedly involving several Gujarati-origin hotel operators in Nebraska. Patel was among six accused, including Sumit Choudhary and Vishal Goswami, who continue to remain in custody.In a separate but recent case involving a person of Gujarati origin, US authorities arrested 41-year-old Siddharth Sunil Kumar Patel in Florida during an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) operation conducted earlier this month. Patel, a technology professional residing in Frisco, Texas, allegedly engaged in sexually explicit online conversations with individuals he believed were minors before travelling to Lake City for a planned meeting. He was arrested on May 14 and faces multiple felony charges, including solicitation of a child and sexual assault.