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.
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.