Psychiatrist Sharmistha Barai Surrenders California Medical License; Convicted of Federal Forced Labor Charges

July 2, 2021

On June 30, 2021, the psychiatrist Sharmistha Barai surrendered her medical license to the Medical Board of California.

The Board had charged Barai with unprofessional conduct based on the circumstances of Barai’s federal conviction, as well as for the conviction itself.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, which prosecuted Barai, stated that she and her husband hired workers from overseas to perform domestic labor in their home in Stockton, California. In advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the couple made false claims regarding the wages and the duties of employment. Then, once the workers arrived at the defendants’ Stockton residence, the couple forced them to work 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment. Few of them were paid any wage. The pair kept the workers from leaving and induced them to keep working for them by threatening them, by creating an atmosphere of fear, control, and disempowerment, and at times by physically hitting or burning them. When a victim pushed back or said she wanted to leave, it got worse.

According to evidence presented at trial, the couple struck one worker on multiple occasions. Barai threatened to kill her and throw her bones in the garbage, backhanded her across the face for talking back, and slammed her hands down on a gas stove, causing her to suffer first and second degree burns on her hands from the flames. The couple also threatened several other victims to coerce them to keep working, including by telling the victims they would report them to police or immigration authorities if they tried to leave. Throughout the victims’ time in the defendants’ home, they were deprived of sleep and food. The defendants subjected the victims to verbal abuse and harassment in an effort to intimidate them into continuing to provide labor and services.

According to the Board’s website and other sources, Barai is a psychiatrist who graduated with a medical degree from the University of Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College in 2002 and began her psychiatry residency at University of St. Louis School of Medicine beginning in 2009. She has held medical licenses in Missouri, North Carolina, and New Mexico, though none are currently active.

On March 14, 2019, after an 11-day trial, a federal jury found Barai and her husband Satish Kartan guilty of conspiracy to obtain forced labor and two counts of obtaining forced labor.

Barai was sentenced on October 2, 2020 to 188 months’ federal custody. She is currently an inmate the Federal Medical Center Carswell, in Fort Worth, Texas, which is a facility “for female inmates of all security levels with special medical and mental health needs.”

Source: “Former Resident of Stockton, California Sentenced to More Than 15 Years in Prison for Human Trafficking Convictions Related to Forced Labor of Foreign Nationals,” news release of United States Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, October 5, 2020, URL: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-resident-stockton-california-sentenced-more-15-years-prison-human-trafficking; Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator entry for Sharmistha Barai, Register Number 76033-097, accessed 7/2/21; Stipulated Surrender of License and Order in the Matter of the Accusation and First Amended Accusation Against Sharmistha Barai, M.D., Case No. 800-2016-028702, Medical Board of California, June 23, 2021, URL: file:///E:/CCHR%20Stuff/For%20Psychs%20Busted%20grid/Barai,%20Sharmistha%20CA%20psychiatrist%20CA%20lic%20surr%206-30-21.pdf and additional research by CCHR which confirmed that Barai is a psychiatrist.