In India, two men have been arrested in connection with the deaths of four people near the US-Canada border in January 2022.
The bodies, including a three-year-old child, were frozen in a field in Manitoba, Canada, 12 meters from the US border.
Authorities in Gujarat state, said the arrested men were “illegal immigration” agents.
Police are also attempting to apprehend two agents based in the United States and Canada.
Whole Family Gone
Jagdish Patel, 39, Vihangi, 11, Vaishaliben, 37, and Dharmik, 3, were all from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat. Many people in the village wanted to leave India and move to another country. The news of their tragic deaths, which occurred after they walked for hours in -35C temperatures, made headlines worldwide.
The Patels were among 11 Gujaratis trying to enter the United States. US authorities apprehended the remaining seven group members after crossing the border.
“The city crime branch has registered an offense in a case where the accused forced 11 people to walk in the snow to get them illegally cross the US-Canada border, resulting in the death of four family members,” Chaitanya Mandlik, a senior police official in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad,
The Canadian Press, reported that the arrested men had been accused of “acting as immigration agents, supplying the family members paperwork and helping them get to the US”.
Family From Gujarat Gone
Human trafficking, criminal conspiracy, is among the charges against them.
“The victims were transported to Toronto, Canada, and then to Vancouver. The agents then dumped them in Winnipeg, Manitoba, leaving them to cross to the United States on their own, “Mr. Mandlik was quoted as saying by the Indian news agency PTI.
According to Manitoba police, “no evidence suggests the Patel family traveled to Vancouver,” according to The Canadian Press.
The Canadian police, working with “international law enforcement partners to advance the investigation into the deaths”.
SOURCE – (BBC)
