Living with your Conscience
by afshan qureshiWhy students should take a stand against Raj and Everest Properties
It is easy to believe that incidents of human trafficking do not happen within the borders of this country. However, people do not realize how close to home “stuff like that” actually happens, and if they do make this realization, most people do not know how to mobilize against it. One such incident did occur in 1999 in the Berkeley community. Lakireddy Bali Reddy, a 1960 Berkeley alum, was accused of exploiting two teenage sisters he had imported from his village in India.
Reddy owns most of the properties in the local area surrounding the University of California, Berkeley. This gives students a very limited housing selection that will not add to Reddy’s coiffeurs in any way. In fact, Reddy owns over 1,000 apartments under the management names of Raj and Everest properties, which earns him approximately one million dollars a month, making him the largest and wealthiest landlord in Berkeley after the University. According to the website of Women Against Sexual Slavery (WASS), an organization that was created in 2000 to create awareness about the Berkeley sex trafficking incident, by 2000, Reddy’s properties were valued at more than $69 million.
It was discovered that Reddy had imported and sexually abused two teenage sisters, 17-year-old girl Chanti Pratipatti and 18-year-old Lalitha Pratipatti from his village in India. When Lalitha died of carbon monoxide poisoning in one of his apartments, Reddy attempted to dispose of the body instead of calling the police. When Chanti put up a fight, Reddy attempted to silence her and dispose of her as well. Instead of sending these girls to school, he forced them to work as his personal sex slaves and forced them to do menial labor in his restaurants in Berkeley and Santa Clara.
Reddy was sentenced to serve eight years in jail on June 21, 2001 on charges of tax and immigration fraud as well as for charges of transportation of minors for illegal sexual activity.
The WASS website reports, “Judge Armstrong sentenced Reddy to 97 months in federal prison and restitution of $2 million as well as a three-year period of supervised release.” Additionally, Reddy was mandated to register with the state of California as a sex offender under Meagan’s List.
Reddy was released from prison on April 2, 2008. He now lives in his mansion in the Berkeley Hills. Because this incident occurred some time ago, students know very little about what actually transpired. Even if they feel morally disinclined to live in a property owned by him, students often outweigh this vice with the convenience of having an apartment in close proximity with campus.
"We only interact with them when something is needed to be repaired or done for our apartment, the experience is either neutral or negative," said sophomore Timaj Siraj who rents from Raj properties. "I am not comfortable with the leasing company’s CEO’s personal background, and I will most likely not be living in a property owned by one of these companies in the future because of what happened."
Similarly, freshman Nikita Khetan was searching for housing for next year when her father emailed her articles about the Reddy case that have changed her perspective on Raj and Everest properties.
“From what I’ve heard, their service isn’t too bad but it takes them a while to fix things. The quality of their apartments is shady, but he owns a lot of the properties in Berkeley, so what can you do?”
She additionally adds, “I’m not necessarily going to rule them out, but I’m going to keep all this information in mind. After hearing everything, I’m definitely going to try to really avoid all Raj or Everest properties.”
At the same time, there are many students who know about the incident and feel as if they have no other choice but to rent from him. Even more disturbing are the number of students who do not feel as if they are affected from the situation enough to let it inconvenience their housing decisions.
“I’m not very uncomfortable renting with Raj Properties. I can justify it to myself in a number of ways: he’s not doing it anymore, he’s paid his debt to society, my apartment has nothing to do with his sex trafficking ring, there’s nowhere else to live, etc.” said sophomore Jaime Lambert. “The truth is, I like this apartment, I wanted it, it was affordable and attainable, and I don’t feel too guilty about paying rent to LB Reddy.”
While this sentiment is shared by many who are aware of the situation, I do not think it is appropriate to rent from Reddy. This man is praised in his village because of all of the money he donates to local charities, when in real life he is a disgusting criminal who imports young womyn, and subsequently, rapes and exploits them. Is it right for society to allow his cruelty towards womyn of a ‘lower caste’ to go unpunished and overlooked?
How can violence like this be so blatantly ignored in our society? These womyn’s statuses as poor immigrants rendered them further invisible from neighbors and institutions that could have protected them, like the police. Chanti and Lalitha are two individuals in a crowd of millions of nameless, faceless womyn who are being exploited around the world.
Yes, he’s served his time and all this happened a while ago but these points are not enough to blanket the fact that a girl is dead, and there are others with psychological injuries because of what Reddy has done to them.
I do not judge those who rent with Raj and Everest Properties, because the issue is a lot more complex than whether students rent from Raj and Everest Properties or not. However, I am still baffled by those students who know about what happened, yet do not care enough to be inconvenienced in their housing situations. After knowing the facts, there should be no excuse in continuing to support someone like Reddy in sustaining his million-dollar living. His crimes are inexcusable and we cannot continue to accept this merely for a comfortable living.
There are students on Sproul everyday advocating for peace in Darfur, relief in Rwanda, they want you to donate money to the Invisible Children Fund, they want you to spend your spring break teaching farmers in Argentina about sustainable living. These are all very noble causes, but politics should start from the home. My argument is not so simplistic to say that people who are renting from Raj and Everest properties are bad people; my argument is that they are making a stupid and unhealthy choice by renting from a man who had no qualms about raping young teenage girls.
The only way now to obtain justice from Reddy is to hurt him financially and this could happen if only more people knew and cared about this situation. Yes, people may feel bad about renting from him, or they may feel bad that something so unfortunate and unbelievable happened right here in our own backyard, but mere sentiment is powerless unless there is an action associated with it. When I was searching for housing last year, I looked at Raj/Everest properties as well. However, when a friend told me about what Reddy had done, I decided I would not support that rapist in any way.
I now rent from K&S Company, and live about two blocks away from campus. I could not live with the thought that my hard-earned money was going to help fuel Reddy’s million-dollar lifestyle. Yes, I may be one person, but I have empowered myself using my voice and my actions to advocate for that which I believe in. If other people also feel bad about renting from Raj or Everest properties, then they too should take a stand and stop renting from them. It is never too late to become a political activist.