4 Indians froze to death at US-Canada border; convicted men denied new trial

Four Indian nationals, who froze to death during a blizzard while trying to cross the Canada-US border in 2022, remain at the centre of a human smuggling case after a US federal judge on Tuesday rejected new trial requests for two men convicted in connection with their deaths.

Jagdish Patel and Vaishaliben Patel with their children Dharmik, 3, and Vihangi, 11.(Through arrangement)

The two men convicted in a human smuggling case, identified as Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand, were denied new trials by a US federal judge John Tunheim on Tuesday.

The victims included 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his wife Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and 3-year-old son Dharmik. They died after freezing to death during a blizzard on January 19, 2022.

Their bodies were found just north of the Canada-US border, near the boundary between Manitoba and Minnesota.

Family from Gujarat was walking on foot in blizzard

The family, originally from Dingucha village in Gujarat, had attempted to cross the border on foot in extreme weather conditions. Seven others in their group survived the crossing.

District Judge John Tunheim declined to set aside the guilty verdicts returned last November against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand.

His order allows both men to take their cases to a federal appeals court after sentencing on May 7.

Lawyers representing both men argued that the evidence against them was not strong enough. “But this was not a close case,” Tunheim countered.

The judge ruled that there was enough evidence for the jury to convict both Shand and Patel on all four counts. He acknowledged that prosecutors disclosed a prior disciplinary action against a testifying border patrol agent late in the trial, which he found concerning, but said it had little effect on the overall case.

He also upheld his decision to try the two defendants together instead of separately.

Prosecutors told the court that Patel, an Indian national who they said used the alias “Dirty Harry,” and Shand, an American from Florida, were involved in a sophisticated illegal network that brought a growing number of Indians into the US.

With AP inputs