The official enquiry into the tragic death of four of a family on the US-Canada border on March 29 has been handed over to Anti-Human Traffic Unit (AHTU) of CID crime. The four died after their boat capsized in St Lawrence River on the Quebec-New York border of Canada while they were trying to cross into US illegally.
The deceased were identified as Pravin Chaudhary, his wife Daksha, son Meet and daughter Vidhi from Manekpur Kabhla village of Mehsana district. A total eight persons had died in the incident — four Romanians had Canadian passports and four from Gujarat.
This was the third incident since the tragedy a year ago when another family of four, from Dingucha in Kalol district, had frozen to death while crossing into the US from Canada. The state administration took the matter seriously.
A top CID crime official said that the enquiry into the latest incident has been handed over to the AHTU unit of the CID crime.
An investigator of AHTU of CID crime said, “Canadian authorities have been contacted and asked to provide the visa and travel documents of the deceased. Though the family of the deceased claims that they did not know anything about the plans of Pravin Chaudhary and his family to cross over into the US, we will call them to record their statements. They only said that the family had gone to Canada on a tourist visa about two months back. However, we are zeroing on a visa agent named Sachin Vihol, who allegedly sent Praveen and his family to Canada.”
Meanwhile, several teams of CID crime, local police and Gujarat ATS have undertaken a massive operation to unravel the illegal immigration racket, the kingpin of which, Bobby Patel, has been arrested.
“There are more than 300 agents in Ahmedabad and several districts of north Gujarat who are involved in illegal immigration. We have made a list of such agents and are tracking them,” the official said.
It has also come to light that before leaving for the US, Pravin Chaudhary was in contact with someone there, probably an employer. “We will share the information with our US counterparts. Officials from the US consulate in Mumbai will shortly visit Gandhinagar and will also interact with the family of Chaudhary,” the AHTU official said.