Man accused of smuggling migrant family who froze to death at border found living outside Toronto
CBC
A man accused by police in India of helping smuggle a family of four through Canada just before they froze to death on the Manitoba border with the United States has been found living freely in a suburb outside Toronto, an investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate has found.
Indian police allege Fenil Patel was one of two men who helped transport Jagdish Patel (no relation) and his family to the border during a blinding snowstorm and –35 C temperatures two years ago.
The Patel family died of exposure on Jan. 19, 2022, while attempting to cross illegally into Minnesota, near Emerson, Man. The frozen bodies of 39-year old Jagdish Patel, his 37-year old wife, Vaishali, their 11-year old daughter, Vihangi, and three-year old son, Dharmik, were found just 12 metres from the U.S. border.
Fenil Patel is facing charges in the Indian state of Gujarat of culpable homicide and human smuggling for his alleged role in the death of the Patel family.
The charges were announced in January 2023. Indian media have reported that he has lived or fled to numerous places, among them the U.S., Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.
But The Fifth Estate found him living a quiet life in a bedroom community outside Toronto.
Fenil Patel did not respond to a number of attempts to interview him. When a Fifth Estate crew questioned him in front of his home, he turned and walked inside without any response.
From driving his children to school to weekend family outings, Fenil Patel's life seems indistinguishable from that of his suburban neighbours. To protect his family's privacy, CBC News is not identifying the specific area.
Nothing in the daily routine observed by The Fifth Estate hints at the serious charges he's facing overseas.
Fenil Patel is alleged to have driven a number of migrants from Toronto to British Columbia and then to Manitoba. There, they met up with the Patel family and were driven to a remote area of the border near Emerson during a severe winter storm on the night of Jan. 18, 2022.
In an interview with The Fifth Estate, Chaitanya Mandlik, deputy commissioner of the Gujarat state police, Ahmedabad crime branch, confirmed the man found by the CBC investigative program is the same Fenil Patel they're seeking.
"Fenil Patel is basically an agent in Canada," he said. "He drove them to the border area."
Mandlik said they had requested the RCMP's help in locating Fenil Patel and arresting him in Canada so he could be returned to India to face the charges.
But it's not clear if an official request has been made.
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