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Fenil Patel arrested in Canada for alleged role in Gujarat family death case
The Patel family from Gujarat’s Dingucha village died while attempting to cross the US-Canada border in January 2022
Ahmedabad: The Canadian authorities have arrested Fenil Patel in connection with the deaths of the Patel family from Dingucha village who died while attempting to cross the US-Canada border in January 2022, said people familiar with the development.
Fenil Patel was taken into custody based on an extradition warrant from the United States, a Canadian Justice Department spokesperson told CBC News. He had been living in a Toronto suburb and was accused of coordinating the Canadian arm of the smuggling operation that led to the deaths of the Dingucha family.
An e-mail sent by HT to the Canada Justice Department remained unanswered.
The US court documents based on an affidavit filed by Special Agent Manuel Jimenez with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on February 22, 2022, revealed that Fenil Patel was identified as a key facilitator in Canada who arranged the trip for the family.
Investigations by US Homeland Security showed that Rajinder Singh, a facilitator in the United States, specifically named Fenil Kumar Patel as the person in Canada who coordinated the journey that ended in tragedy on January 19, 2022.
The case has connections to another Gujarat man, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, known as ‘Dirty Harry’, from Indrad village in Mehsana district. Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel was in May this year sentenced to 10 years in prison by a US court for his role in the smuggling operation. Phone records showed Dirty Harry made approximately 200 calls and texts with Steve Shand, the Florida man who was arrested while attempting to transport Indian nationals near the US-Canada border.
The victims were 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his 37-year-old wife Vaishali, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi, and three-year-old son Dharmik from Dingucha village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district. The family died just a few metres away from the US border in minus 35 degrees Celsius during a snowstorm.
A Gujarat police official aware of the matter said investigations are ongoing. The state police have been working with international agencies to track down those involved in the smuggling network.
In December 2022, Gujarat police arrested Bobby alias Bharat Patel from Ahmedabad, who was also believed to have arranged the infiltration of the Dingucha family. This arrest provided leads that helped investigators map the network spanning multiple countries.
The investigation has led to arrests of Bobby Patel’s associates over the past two years. Gujarat’s state monitoring cell nabbed Keyur Patel alias Ketan Patel alias Manish Patel from Mehsana’s Visnagar, who was working with Bobby Patel in sending Gujaratis to the US, the official added.
Last month, the authorities arrested another aide of Bobby Patel after he had been on the run for 2.5 years. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Bobby Patel under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with the human trafficking racket.
Police officials aware of the development revealed that Bobby Patel has been involved in human smuggling for a decade and may have sent more than 200 people from Gujarat to the US via Canada with the help of his aide Charanjit Singh, who holds a US passport.
“We have notified US officials about Singh but no arrest has been made so far,” said a second Gujarat police official aware of the matter.
