OTTAWA, Jan 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Canadian authorities believe the deaths of four Indian nationals found steps away from the Canada-US border are connected to a human smuggling scheme.
Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishailben Patel, 37, and their children Vihangi, 11, and Dharkmik, 3, died from exposure due to the frigid cold in Manitoba, Canada.
Temperatures dropped to -35C (-31F) on the night the Patel family attempted to cross into the US on foot.
The family was found in a field just north of the border on Jan 19.
Their identities were announced by Canada’s High Commission of India and later confirmed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The family hailed from Dingucha, a village in Gujarat in the district of Gandhinagar, where neighbours said the Patels were known to have travelled to Canada about ten days ago on visitor visas.
According to a member of the village council, who did not want to be named, family members contacted India’s Ministry of External Affairs after the travelling Patels became unreachable five days ago.
“We thought that, this would help, as everyone here feared that they might have been in trouble and so we decided to write to the Ministry of External Affairs,” he said.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, RCMP superintendent Rob Hill said the Patel family first arrived in Canada on Jan 12, on a flight to Toronto. From there, they made their way west to the province of Manitoba, before travelling to Emerson – a border town – on or around Jan 18. Their bodies were found the next night.
No abandoned vehicle was found near the Canada-US border in Emerson, suggesting that someone drove the Patel family to a drop-off point before they began their journey on foot.
The RCMP would not comment on whether the Patels’ case was connected to a group of seven other Indian nationals also found by border agents on the evening of Jan 19. Steve Shand, a 47-year-old Florida resident, has been charged with human smuggling after authorities found him driving a 15-person van along the border, on the same night the Patels were found. Shand had two Indian nationals as passengers in his car, and cases of food and water in his boot.
The deaths of the Patel family have rocked the Indian community in Manitoba. — NNN-AGENCIES
