The arrival of two officers of Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate the Dingucha deaths has intensified matters. The Gujarat and Delhi Police, meanwhile, are probing the human smuggling network spread across north Gujarat, with agents sitting in other cities too.
RCMP officers, who visited Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar on February 27 and February 28, shared information about the illegal immigration cases with the Ahmedabad Crime Branch and also collected local details in the Dingucha case.
It may be recalled that Gujarat Police took to investigating human smuggling rackets after RCMP found Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, and their children Vihangi, 12, and Dharmik, 3, lying together, frozen, in an empty field near the Canada-US border on January 19, 2022. The residents of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar district had reportedly separated from a larger group of Indians who were trying to illegally crossed the border into the US in -35°C weather.
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Sharing pointers of the meet, a senior police officer briefed: “We have exchanged information about the human smugglers involved in the tragic deaths of the four Dingucha residents. We are keen on bringing the three accused in the case – Rajinder Pal Singh, Fenil Patel and Bitta Singh alias Bittu Paji – to India.”
Indo-Canadian Rajinder Pal Singh, arrested in Washington last year, admitted to his involvement in human trafficking and money laundering cases. Fenil Patel from Surat and Bitta Singh, who live in Canada, provided logistic support, including stay and travel, to the Dingucha family and seven others during their illegal journey. Several witnesses in the case named them as the key accused.
“We have booked them under charges of culpable homicide and are working at having them deported to India,” said a city crime branch officer.
Following the Dingucha deaths, the Gujarat Police cracked down on human smuggling rackets in the state. After the year-long trailing of suspects, the city crime branch arrested Yogesh Patel from Vastrapur in Ahmedabad and his aide, Bhavesh Patel from Kalol in Gandhinagar on January 14 their year. The two have been charged with culpable homicide.
Earlier, trafficking kingpin Bobby Patel was nabbed from an area in Ahmedabad on December 14.
Also Read: Dingucha Tragedy: Close Family Member Facilitated Patels’ Ill-Fated Journey To US
