Cops in India have arrested two men in connection with the deaths of four of a family near the freezing border of Canada and the US in January last year.
The bodies of the victims, including that of a three-year-old child, were found lying frozen in a field in Manitoba, Canada, around 12 miles from the US border.
Authorities in the western Indian state of Gujarat, from where the ill-fated family originated, said the arrested duo were "illegal immigration" agents, the BBC reported.
The cops were also trying to track down two agents based in the two North American countries.
The four who died included Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishaliben, 37, their daughter Vihangi, 11, and son Dharmik, three.
The family reportedly was from Dingucha village of Gujarat, where many local people aspired to shift abroad. The shocking report that they walked in minus 35 degrees Celsius temperature before dying stormed headlines across the world.
The Patel family was among a group of 11 people from the Indian state who were trying to enter the US.
The other seven were reportedly detained by US authorities after crossing the border.
"The city crime branch has registered an offence in a case wherein the accused (agents) had forced 11 people to walk in the snow in a bid to get them illegally cross the US-Canada border, causing the death of four members of a family," Chaitanya Mandlik, a senior police official in Gujarat's Ahmedabad, was quoted as saying to the media on Monday (16).
The Canadian Press, a news agency, said that the arrested men have been accused of "acting as immigration agents, supplying the family members paperwork and helping them get to the US".
They were accused of offences such as human trafficking, criminal conspiracy, and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
"The victims were taken to Toronto in Canada and later to Vancouver. The agents then dumped them at Winnipeg in Manitoba province leaving them to cross over to the US on their own," Indian news agency PTI quoted Mandlik as saying.
Manitoba police told The Canadian Press that there was "no evidence to suggest the Patel family travelled to Vancouver".
They added that they were working with "international law enforcement partners to advance the investigation into the deaths".
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