Following the deaths of an Indian-Gujarati family trying to illegally cross the US-Canada border in January 2022, a US court has begun jury selection on Monday for the trial of two individuals accused of human smuggling. This comes almost three years after the incident.
Prosecutors have charged Florida resident Steve Shand, 50 and Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, with orchestrating the plot and waiting in a vehicle for 11 migrants to cross the border into the US.
Following the discovery of the bodies of four Gujarati family members from Dingucha (near Gandhinagar) about three years ago, the judicial procedures began.
Both defendants filed not guilty pleas to many charges of human trafficking and the trial is in a Minnesota court over the course of five days. In February 2024, Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national, was taken into custody in Chicago. Harshkumar Patel is also known as ‘Dirty Harry’.
However, Shand was detained by US border patrol officers earlier on January 19, 2022, while driving a 15-seater vehicle that was retired and carrying seven people, including the four victims, from Dingucha, Gujarat, close to the US border.
During a heavy snowfall in Manitoba, Canada, the victims—Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishali, 37; and their children, Vihangi, 11 and Dharmik, 3—froze to death just 12 meters from the border. According to US officials, the family’s death was caused by hypothermia.
WhatsApp conversations between Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand have exposed his involvement in a human smuggling scheme. Patel reportedly worked under several names, including Harry Patel, Param Singh, Haresh Patel and Hareshkumar Singh Patel.
Shand was employed by Patel and paid to transport illegal migrants into the US after they had crossed the border. Prosecutors said that Patel and Shand were familiar because they resided close to Deltona, Florida and visited casino gaming rooms.
According to reports, Patel and Shand sneaked scores of individuals across the Canada-US border between December 12, 2021 and January 19, 2022, the day the Indian-Gujarati family died. Indian citizens were brought to Canada on student visas as part of the operation and they were subsequently illegally moved to the US.
Shand and Patel, along with other Canadian accomplices, planned crosses from Manitoba into Minnesota, according to US officials. Patel reportedly made arrangements with Canadian traffickers to decide on the number of people and the location and timing of the crossings.
In Canada, no charges have been made as of yet. According to the Canadian police, no one has been taken into custody and the investigation is still ongoing.
US prosecutors want to bring a number of witnesses during the trial, including law enforcement officials who were present at the scene of the tragedy and those who were working on the smuggling investigation.
More witnesses are expected to be summoned, including professional analysts of phone logs and the weather on the day the Patel family died.
It is anticipated that two forensic pathologists from Canada would testify on the autopsies performed on the Patel family.
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