Accused smuggler of family that froze at Manitoba-U.S. border seeking release before trial

A man accused of smuggling an Indian family who froze to death near the U.S.-Manitoba border is seeking his freedom while awaiting trial.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, was arrested in Chicago in February and charged with seven counts of human smuggling by the United States District Court in the District of Minnesota. He pleaded not guilty.

He will appear in court Friday in Duluth, where his lawyer will present a motion for a judge to reconsider his detention and allow his release on whatever conditions the court orders. He has been held since his arrest, after he waived his right to a detention hearing in an Illinois court.

Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishaliben, 37, their daughter Vihangi, 11, and three-year-old son Dharmik froze to death near Emerson, metres from the border, while trying to cross into the U.S. Jan. 19, 2022.

Harshkumar Patel, who is of no relation to the Patel family, was allegedly a “co-conspirator” with Steve Anthony Shand, 49, who was arrested after border agents found him in northern Minnesota with two Indian nationals in a rented passenger van the same day the Patels were found dead, according to American court documents. Shand is charged with two human smuggling offences, though more charges are possible.

The family, from the state of Dingucha in western India, suffered severe frostbite after being exposed to blizzard conditions with temperatures as low as -35 C while walking nearly 12 hours overnight, court documents said.

According to the documents, Shand said the two met through Patel’s gambling business and he was recruited to pick up Indian nationals illegally crossing the border into Minnesota.

Harshkumar Patel’s fiancée, Megha Patel, has offered to allow him to live with her and her parents in Savannah, Tenn., according to the motion that will be considered Friday. She is an American citizen and has a job.

Meantime, Shand has asked for a hearing in a bid to get evidence from the traffic stop and van search thrown out, arguing it was wrongfully conducted. His lawyer filed a motion April 17 in Minnesota court to suppress the evidence.

“Shand maintains that the initial traffic stop was done without reasonable suspicion of a traffic infraction or any other offence; that law enforcement subsequently removed him from his van without constitutionally adequate justification; and that law enforcement searched his van without reasonable suspicion or probable cause,” reads the motion.

The search of the van, his lawyer argues, was a separate constitutional violation and resulted from the unlawful traffic stop.

As a evidence recovered in the search is now being used against him, his motion argues the court should suppress the evidence as violations of his Fourth Amendment rights. The American constitutional amendment protects people from unreasonable search and seizure by government.

Shand alleges that the reason he was stopped at about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 19, 2022 on 180th Street North near Humboldt, Minn., was purportedly because an American border agent observed him do a three-point turn.

The border agent did not claim that to be a traffic violation, according to Shand’s motion.

“While the traffic stop occurred near the border, other than general suspicion, it does not appear that (the agent) possessed any specific information that the van Mr. Shand was driving was involved in an illegal border crossing,” reads the motion.

The motion requests a hearing at which the border agent would be called to testify.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca