Two men indicted in case of four Indian nationals who froze to death at border

A federal grand jury has indicted Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel over their alleged roles in trying to illegally bring a group of Indian nationals across the Canadian border into the United States, a case that led to a family of four freezing to death.

The deaths of Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Patel, 37, and their two children Vihangi, 11, and Dharmik, 3, in January 2022 spurred sprawling investigations into the illicit immigration pipeline to the United States from their home state of Gujarat in western India. Authorities discovered the four bodies frozen in Emerson, Manitoba, and found five other Indian immigrants on foot and two more in a van driven by Shand in a rural area between Lancaster, Minn., and Pembina, N.D..

Shand, of Deltona, Fla., was scheduled to face trial next Monday in Fergus Falls on two counts of illegally bringing in and transporting undocumented immigrants, but the long-delayed proceedings were postponed again Friday.

The seven-count superseding indictment filed this week includes far more extensive criminal allegations against Shand and says he acted with Harshkumar Patel, who was arrested in Chicago last month and is now in the Sherburne County jail in Elk River. Police in India have also arrested a series of smugglers in connection with the case.

Attorneys for both men could not immediately be reached for comment.

The grand jury found that Shand and Patel conspired to transport unauthorized immigrants to the United States, causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. The indictment said the pair brought or tried to bring them, and aided their journey for private financial gain.

Authorities said in a complaint filed against Patel last September that they conducted a forensic examination of Shand’s phone and found he had been communicating on WhatsApp with Patel, whom he knew as “Dirty Harry,” about rental cars, hotels and payments. Messages discussed what time Shand should travel to the border to pick up the Indian nationals.

Shand said in a March 2022 interview with federal agents that he met Patel at a gambling establishment in Orange City, Fla., where Patel was a manager and Shand used to pick up and drop off clients in his taxi. Authorities said they believed that Patel had entered the United States without legal permission from Canada after being denied an American visa at least five times.

Shand said Patel recruited him to transport undocumented immigrants from the Canadian border with Minnesota to the Chicago area. Shand told authorities that he had made five such trips between December 2021 and January 2022, including the one in which he was arrested.

Because the immigrants did not speak English and Shand did not speak their language, he would put his phone on speaker so that the Indian nationals could communicate with Patel. Shand told authorities that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five smuggling trips, dropping off cash in his mailbox or with Shand’s adult son.

The day the family of four died in subzero temperatures, Shand texted Patel, “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions please.”

“Done,” Patel replied at 1 a.m., according to the complaint.

Eight hours later, Patel messaged him, “When ever you at the spot let me know.”

Authorities stopped Shand and the Indian nationals on foot that morning. One of the men in the group told investigators that he was carrying a backpack of children’s items for a family of four who had gotten separated from them in the night. A search led to the discovery of Jagdish Patel and his family, lying frozen just a few dozen feet from the international border.