Indian law enforcement agencies said they are investigating alleged links between dozens of colleges in Canada and two “entities” in Mumbai accused of illegally transporting students across the Canada-US border.
A press release issued Tuesday from India’s Enforcement Directorate — a multidisciplinary organization that investigates money laundering and foreign exchange laws — said a multi-city search revealed “incriminating” evidence of “human trafficking.”
These allegations have not been tested in court. The federal government, the RCMP, the Indian High Commission in Ottawa, and several Canadian college officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The US Embassy said on Thursday that it had no comment.
Indian officials say they began their investigation after Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, was found dead along with his wife and two children near a border crossing between Manitoba and the United States on January 19, 2022.
Last month, a Minnesota jury found two men guilty — Steve Shand of Florida and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago — on four counts of bringing, transporting and profiting from unauthorized persons into the United States.
Patel is a common name in India, and the family is not related to the accused.
Prosecutors said Harshkumar Patel coordinated the complex operation while Chand was a driver. Prosecutors said Chand was scheduled to pick up 11 Indian immigrants on the Minnesota side of the border. Only seven survived the pedestrian crossing. Canadian authorities found Patel’s family later that morning dead from the cold.
Harshkumar Patel and Chand have not yet been sentenced and may appeal.
The press release issued on Tuesday said that officials have launched an investigation following a report filed against Bhavesh Ashukbhai Patel, who allegedly arranged the family’s travel.
The directorate claimed that each family member paid the equivalent of between $93,000 and $102,000 to cross to the United States from Canada.
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This incident was called the Dingosha case in India, named after the village in the western Indian state of Gujarat from which the family originated.
The Enforcement Directorate said it inspected eight places last week in Mumbai and Nagpur in Maharashtra and Gandhinagar and Vadodara in Gujarat.
It also claims that Bhavesh Ashukbhai Patel arranged for people to get admission in Canadian colleges, which helped in obtaining student visas. The press release did not identify the schools allegedly involved.
“Once individuals or students arrived in Canada, instead of enrolling in college, they illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada border and never enrolled in college(s) in Canada,” she said.
She added that the fees paid for admission to the college were then refunded.
The research found that around 25,000 students were referred by one ‘entity’ and over 10,000 students by another entity to various colleges outside India every year, the statement said.
It claimed that the network has around 1,700 agents in Gujarat and around 3,500 agents across India, of which 800 are active agents.
The statement claims that “about 112 colleges based in Canada” entered into agreements with one entity, while “more than 150” colleges did so with another entity.
It is not clear from the statement whether any colleges have ties to both entities.
Anil Pratham, a former senior police official in Gujarat who has since retired, has been involved in investigating the case since January 2022 when the Patels died.
He told The Canadian Press that his team looked at papers, such as certificates and documents that students use to apply to colleges and universities abroad.
The police then contacted the villagers through various associations and asked them for help.
“We told the villagers that you have to come out and tell us who are the victims and who are the agents living there,” he said in an interview from Gujarat state. “This helped us in our investigation.”
He added that the process took nearly three years because the first step was proving the crime, indicting, investigating and concluding it.
Pratham said that police in Gujarat received assistance from their counterparts in Canada and New York.
He also had advice for those wishing to travel abroad to study or work.
“There is a legal way to move from India to any country one wants,” he said.
News of the Indian investigation comes amid tensions with the United States over border security, a federal rethink of international student policy, and diplomatic tensions with India over New Delhi’s alleged targeting of Sikh activists in Canada.
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to cancel tariffs on Canadian goods if Ottawa does not take tough enough action against immigrants and drugs crossing into the United States illegally, prompting Ottawa to allocate $1.3 billion over six years to address border security.
Public Safety Minister Dominique LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Jolie traveled to Florida on Thursday to talk border security and trade with the next US president.
Before that, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats in October, over allegations that they used their positions to collect information about Canadians and then passed it on to criminal gangs that directly targeted the individuals.
At the time, Canada also claimed that India’s Home Affairs Minister had ordered intelligence-gathering operations against Sikh separatists defending an independent state called Khalistan to be carved out of India. New Delhi rejects Ottawa’s claims.
