Dingucha rerun: Three of Mehsana family drown at Canada-US border

In what comes as a grim reminder of last year's Dingucha tragedy, it has been confirmed that the three Indians who were among the eight who drowned in the St Lawrence river at the Quebec-New York border belong to a Gujarati family from Manekpura village of Mehsana.
The deceased have been identified as Pravin Chaudhary, 50, his son Mit, 20, and daughter Vidhi, 23. There is no word about Chaudhary's wife Daksha, 45, yet; it is unclear if she was with them on the boat that capsized, Gujarat police sources told TOI.

Heart-wrenching stories highlighting the tragic consequences of illegal immigration keep hitting headlines, but the obsession with American soil refuses to erode the collective morale of villagers of north Gujarat. Police sources said that the modus operandi in the latest case also points at the same network of human smugglers who are being probed for their links to Dingucha and St Regis cases, indicating that lessons haven't been learnt.
According to police sources, the Chaudhary family had left for Canada in February on visitor's visas.

Cops suspect involvement of 3 human smugglers
According to police sources, the Chaudhary family did not reveal to anyone the name of the agent who had helped them or if they had plans to cross into the US, sources said.
On Sunday, former home minister Vipul Chaudhary visited the deceased's family, sources said.
CID Crime is investigating the case. "Going by the modus operandi and the route of operation, we suspect the involvement of three human smugglers.

One is an agent from Mansa, and another is a key aide of Yogesh Patel, both involved in the Dingucha case. The third suspect is an accused linked to the case in which six youths were rescued from the St Regis last year after their boat capsized.
He was involved in the IELTS scam that facilitated high scores for candidates aspiring to move to the US."
Yogesh Patel is in judicial custody in connection with the deaths of four of a family from Dingucha village - Jagdish Patel, his wife and two kids were found frozen to death while illegally crossing the US-Canada border in January last year.

In the past too, there have been two such boat capsizing incidents involving illegal immigrants from Gujarat. In April last year, six youths from north Gujarat nearly drowned while crossing the Canada-US border through St Regis. They were rescued by the US agencies and were produced to the New York district court where they were relieved on humanitarian grounds and a quip by the judge - "Tell your countrymen not to enter the US illegally." It is their difficulty in speaking English in the court despite their high IELTS scores that blew the lid off the IELTS scam.
In 2015 too, two men from Gujarat drowned in the St. Lawrence near Cornwall during a human smuggling attempt. A 20-year-old accompanying them, Mayur Patel, was rescued and charged with three counts of misrepresentation under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.