Family From Gujarat’s Mehsana Drown at US-Canada Border
Four Indians whose bodies were recovered from a marshy area of the St Lawrence River in the Canadian province of Quebec have been identified to be from a village in the Mehsana district of Gujarat.
Bodies of 4 Indians were recovered from a marshy area of the St Lawrence River in the Canadian province of Quebec on Thursday 30th March 2023. They were from a village in the Mehsana district of Gujarat. They were among the eight people who had died allegedly while crossing the Canada-US border illegally. The other two bodies were identified as that of a Romanian family, including a child. The Indian family had reached Canada on a tourist visa a few weeks ago with the intention to enter into the US illegally via a boat. The deceased include Praveen Chaudhary (50) a farmer, his wife Diksha (45), son Meet (20), and daughter Vidhi (24). Some news reports say the Mother is still missing. They are said to have been helped by a local agent to attempt entering the US illegally. According to the reports, they tried to enter the United States from Canada by boat across the St Lawrence River. According to the local papers, they allegedly tried to enter the US illegally. Their relatives residing in India came to know about their deaths on social media on April 1. Jasubhai Chaudhary, a resident of Manekpur village told news reporters, "Two months ago, my brother, his wife and two children went to Canada on a visitors' visa. Yesterday morning I learnt about the death of members of a family from India in Canada. I tried to contact my brother but was not able to do so. This caused suspicion that they were our family members," Chaudhary said the family's suspicion was confirmed after they found that the names of the victims circulating on Whatsapp groups of his relatives settled in Canada were that of his brother, wife and two children. These deaths are similar to the death of a family of four, including an infant, from [Dingucha village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district in Gujarat in January 2022, who froze to death in Canada while allegedly attempting to cross over illegally to the US.
On 14 December 2022, Gujarat police arrested the mastermind in the illegal immigration scam, Bobby alias Bharat Patel, from Ahmedabad. Patel is believed to have arranged the infiltration of the Dingucha family. In January 2023 this year, police arrested two more persons in connection to the Dingucha incident. In 2022, a resident from Gandhinagar’s Kalol, Brijkumar Yadav, died while scaling a wall near Tijuana, Mexico allegedly to illegally cross over into the US. While his wife, Pooja Yadav, fell on US soil, Brijkumar fell from a height of five metres on the Mexican side along with his toddler son. The son, according to the local reports, was later united with his mother. Since many cases of illegal entry into the US was coming up, the Gujarat police began investigating the matter. On September 5, 2022, Mehsana police booked 45 persons for their alleged involvement in an illegal immigration scam where ineligible students have acquired high International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores to obtain admission in Canadian colleges so that they could be smuggled into the US. Police also arrested three persons, including a student from Surat. Six persons from Gujarat who travelled to Canada on student visas were caught by US agencies on April 28, 2022. They were caught while illegally crossing over to the US when their boat capsized in St Regis. They were rescued by US and Canadian authorities. When they were produced in court, the boys couldn’t even speak in English even though their IELTS scores were high.
