Dead Indian family came from small village in Gujarat

In search of the ‘American dream,’ the family had flown to Canada last Monday on visitor visas.

An Indian family of four that was found frozen to death on the US-Canada border last week apparently came from a small village of about 3,000 people near the capital of India’s Gujarat state.

The family, including an infant and a teenager, had flown to Canada last Monday on visitor visas on their first visit abroad, according to Indian media reports citing people in the Dingucha village who knew them.

Apparently, victims of a human smuggling operation, the family was found frozen on the US-Canada border near Emerson, Manitoba Wednesday.

Read: Indian family of four found frozen to death near US-Canada border (January 22, 2022)

The family froze to death in minus 40 F blizzard after walking for 11 hours through waist-high snow to illegally cross border into US in search of the American dream.

Police showed up at the village in Kalol tehsil in Gandhinagar district on Saturday, and called on a man whose family members travelled to Canada recently, and who are now missing, the Indian Express reported.

The descriptions of the missing members of the family from Dingucha — a 39-year-old man, his 37-year-old wife, and their 17-year-old daughter and four-year-old son — match with the dead family, it said citing police and relatives.

“A team from Nardipur police outpost arrived at my residence on Saturday night to inquire about the family from our village,” village sarpanch (head) Mathurji Thakor told the Express.

“They asked me if I knew any close relatives of the family. We at the panchayat do not keep records of people traveling overseas,” Thakor said. The family had not been in touch with their relatives since Wednesday when the four frozen bodies were found, the villagers told the newspaper.

“We have not received any official communication from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regarding the identity of the deceased people yet. The villagers have been informed of the same,” Gandhinagar Collector Kuldeep Arya told the Express.

“As per our records, the family went to Canada on visitor visas so there is no ground for investigation unless we are intimated by the MEA,” KK Desai, police inspector, Kalol Taluka police station, said.

However, a team did visit the village on Saturday, he said, “and we have found that there is a family of five there, four of whom had gone to Canada leaving behind the sexagenarian grandfather, he said. “We have found out that he has now moved to Ahmedabad to stay with his younger brother.”

“I visited their house on Friday and congratulated the man’s father saying that his son and daughter-in-law were about to build new lives, and there was nothing to worry,” Amritbhai Vakil, 69, a relative of the missing family, told the Express.

“He told me that he was unable to contact them. On Saturday, I heard about the dead Indian family on TV,” Vakil added.

Kown as “NRI kaka” (NRI uncle), Vakil who has been living in the US for the past 33 years, returned to the affluent urban village, 25 miles from Gandhinagar, recently.

Read: Indian missions rush teams to help probe in Indian family’s death (January 22, 2022)

“A number of friends from Dingucha who now live in the US and Canada contacted me asking if I was aware of the identity of the deceased family,” he told the Express.

“Families in communities such as Patidar, Darbar, and Thakor are close-knit and part of the same clan, which means everyone is distantly related to each other here,” Vakil said.

The village has a government primary school, a private senior secondary school, and a primary health care centre built by the villagers themselves. Many of the village bungalows, owned by people who live either abroad or elsewhere in Gujarat, stand empty and locked, the Express said.

“The people of Dingucha are basically into business, farming, and private jobs,” Kirit Prajapati, a clerk at Gandhinagar secretariat, who lives in Dingucha, told the Express.

“Families have moved out of here to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, and purchased homes there as well,” he said. “The NRIs usually return to the village every year for a week during Diwali.”

Meanwhile, a Florida man, Steve Shand, 47, facing human smuggling charges in Minnesota is due to appear for a preliminary and detention hearing on Jan 24 at 3:00 pm before US District Court Magistrate Judge Hildy Bowbeer.

At his first appearance on Jan 20 before Bowbeer, Shand was charged with one count of knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien had come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law, having transported, and moved or having attempted to transport and move such aliens.

Read: Indians killed in freezing temperature at US-Canada border reportedly from village in Gujarat (January 23, 2022)

According to court documents, Shand was arrested on Jan 19 after the US Border Patrol (USBP) stopped a white-colored, 15 passenger van less than one mile south of the US-Canadian border.

The authorities have also arrested seven other undocumented Indian nationals who were apparently smuggled across the US-Canada border by Shand.