Two men have been detained by Indian police in connection with the deaths of four people close the US-Canada border in January 2022.
The dead, which included a three-year-old child, were discovered frozen together in a field in Manitoba, Canada, 12 meters from the US border.
Authorities in Gujarat state, where the family was from, claimed that the individuals who were taken into custody were “illegal immigration” agents.
Furthermore, police are attempting to apprehend two other agents with bases in the US and Canada.
The family, which included Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben, 37, Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3, was from the Dingucha village in Gujarat, where many residents desired to emigrate abroad.
Their horrific deaths, which occurred after they walked for hours in -35°C conditions, made headlines all around the world.
The Patels were among a group of 11 Gujaratis attempting to enter the United States. After crossing the border, US police detained the remaining seven members of the group.
“The city crime branch has registered an offence in a case wherein the accused (agents) had forced 11 people to walk in the snow in a bid to get them illegally cross the US-Canada border, causing the death of four members of a family,” Chaitanya Mandlik, a senior police official in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, told reporters.
The arrested men have been charged with “acting as immigration agents, supplying the family members paperwork and helping them get to the US”
They face accusations of engaging in human trafficking, participating in criminal activity, and culpable homicide that does not c not amounting to murder.
“The victims were taken to Toronto in Canada and later to Vancouver. The agents then dumped them at Winnipeg in Manitoba province leaving them to cross over to the US on their own,” Mr Mandlik said.
There is “no evidence to suggest the Patel family traveled to Vancouver,” Manitoba police told reporters.
In order to progress the investigation into the killings, the Canadian police further stated that they were collaborating with international law enforcement partners.
Author-Roberta Appiah
