Indian family's chilling death in -38 degrees celsius on Canada-US border: Case trial begins
An Indian family which froze to death in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago while walking across to the US.
Trial was scheduled to start on Monday in the case pertaining to a criminal network spanning between India and Canada of smuggling families seeking to move to the United states, one such was an Indian family which froze to death in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago.
Accused in the case are 29-year-old Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand (59) of Florida. Patel is said to have recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Florda's Deltona, just north of Orlando.
Indian family that froze to death
Jagdish Patel, 39, and his wife died along with their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and three-year-old son Dharmik due to hours spent wandering fields in blizzard conditions, during which wind chill reached minus 38 degrees Celsius in January, 2022. They were trying to walk across the border to the US.
The family, which belonged to Dingucha village of Gujarat's Gandhinagar district.
Canadian authorities found the the bodies of the couple and their kids on the morning of January 19, 2022. Jagdish Patel was found dead holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.
According to an Associated Press report, federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of an operation that approached people looking to move the US from India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the United States, mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.
Federal prosecutors say Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the US, mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.
Prosecutors have accused Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel of running the scheme and Steve Shand of waiting in a truck for 11 migrants.
Also Read: Indian family of four froze to death while trying to cross US-Canada border
As per the Pew Research Center estimates, there were more than 7,25,000 Indians living illegally in the US by 2022, behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.
Harshkumar Patel's client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself and now "stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime, his attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press, adding that he has faith in the justice system of his adopted country and believes that the truth will come out at the trial.”
Court documents cited in the report showed Harshkumar Patel was in the US illegally after being refused a US visa at least five times.
Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. While waiting to pick up one group, the documents say, Shand on one such night in December 2021 messaged Patel that it was “cold as hell”.
“They going to be alive when they get here?” he allegedly wrote.
