3 years after Gujarat family froze to death on Canada border, US trial to start

After nearly three years of the deaths of an Indian-Gujarati family attempting to cross the US-Canada border illegally in January 2022, a US court on Monday will begin jury selection in the trial of two people charged with human smuggling.
Prosecutors have accused Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, of running the scheme and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida of waiting in a truck for 11 migrants to walk across the border to the US, accroding to news agency AP.
The court proceedings comes nearly three years ago after the bodies of four members of the Gujarati family from Dingucha (near Gandhinagar), were found dead.
The trial is expected to last five days in a Minnesota court, with both defendants pleading not guilty to several counts of human trafficking.
The Indian national, Harshkumar Patel, was arrested in Chicago in February 2024. Harshkumar Patel is also known as ‘Dirty Harry’.
However, Shand was arrested earlier on January 19, 2022, by US border patrol agents while driving a rented 15-seater van transporting seven individuals, including the four victims from Gujarat’s Dingucha, near the US border.
The victims — Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, and their children, Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3, froze to death just 12 metres from the border in Canada’s Manitoba during a severe blizzard. US authorities said the family died of hypothermia.
Harshkumar Patel, who also operated under various aliases such as Harry Patel, Param Singh, Haresh Patel, and Hareshkumar Singh Patel, has been implicated in a human smuggling racket as revealed by WhatsApp exchanges between him and Steve Shand, according to CBC News.
Patel hired and paid Shand to smuggle illegal migrants once they crossed the border into the US. Prosecutors said Patel and Shand knew each other because they both visited casino game rooms and lived near Deltona, Florida.
From December 12, 2021, to January 19, 2022, the day the Indian-Gujarati family died, Patel and Shand allegedly smuggled dozens of people across the Canada-US border. The operation involved bringing Indian nationals to Canada on student visas and then illegally moving them into the US, according to CBC News.
US prosecutors said Shand and Patel orchestrated crossings from Manitoba into Minnesota with co-conspirators in Canada. Patel allegedly arranged with Canadian smugglers to determine where and when to make the crossings, as well as the number of migrants.
To date, no charges have been filed in Canada. The Canadian police said the investigation remains open, and no arrests have been made.
During the trial, US prosecutors intend to call several witnesses, which may include law enforcement officers who were at the scene when the tragedy occurred, as well as those involved in investigating the smuggling operation.
Other witnesses anticipated to be called include expert analysts on phone records and the weather conditions on the day the Patel family died.
Two Canadian forensic pathologists are expected to testify about the Patel family’s autopsies, according to CBC News.