Trial begins for two men accused of smuggling Indian family who froze to death at U.S.-Canada border

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

Prosecutors in the U.S. said on Monday, November 18, that two men, including an Indian origin person, chose financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle a family of four from India across the U.S.-Canada border. The family, unfortunately, couldn’t withstand the heavy snow and cold, and froze to death.

As per reports, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, allegedly ran part of a human smuggling scheme and even recruited Steve Shand, 50, to ferry migrants across the border. While they have pleaded not guilty to four federal counts, they are undergoing trial in Minnesota.

The said trial, which started Monday, is expected to go on for about five days.

The victims, 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, and their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, died on January 19, 2022.

prosecutor Ryan Lipes said in his opening statement that Shand and Patel disregarded the weather condition, which reached minus 36 degrees, to smuggle migrants across the border on foot.

As per reports, Shand had been waiting in a truck for 11 migrants,

“The migrants were dropped at a dark isolated part of the Canadian border nowhere near a legal port of entry,” Lipes said, as quoted by The Associated Press. “This case is about these two men putting profit over people’s lives, profit they earned by smuggling migrants from India across the Canadian border into the U.S,” Lipes told the jury.

Representing Harshkumar Patel, Attorney Thomas Leinenweber said his client was wrongfully accused. “There are certain universal feelings that we all have,” Leinenweber said. “One of the worst feeling universally that anyone could feel is when you are wrongfully accused.”

Leinenweber told The Associated Press that Harshkumar Patel came to the U.S. in search of a better life “before being unjustly accused of crimes he didn’t commit”.

Lisa Lopez, representing Shand, however, told the jury that her client was an unwitting participant in the smuggling ring and was being used by Patel. “Mr. Shand was used by Mr. Patel. And being used does not equate under the law to being guilty of conspiracy,” Lopez said.

While the defense attorneys raised objections about the prosecutors’ plan to show several photographs of the victims to the jury, stating that it could cause “extreme prejudice to the jury”, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim dismissed the plea and allowed the photos to remain as evidence.