- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Relatives of an Indian family which was found dead in a river marsh near the US-Canada border last week have said that they are still in shock, the BBC reported.
Bodies of four Indians were found among eight that police personnel discovered from the St Lawrence river. According to authorities, the deceased were members of two migrant families from India and Romania who they suspect were trying to cross into American territory.
The deceased Indians were identified as Pravin Chaudhary, 50, his wife Diksha, 45, and their children Vidhi, 24, and Meet, 20. They belonged to a village in Mehsana district of the western state of Gujarat, which is also the home state of prime minister Narendra Modi.
According to the BBC report, a pall of gloom fell in the village and even sounds of women wailing could be heard.
Jasubhai Chaudhary, cousin of Pravin, said he started getting worried over the family’s state on Saturday (1) morning when he learned about news of the discovery of the Indians’ bodies, the report added.
Pravin and his family had left for Canada on visitor visas on February 3.
Jasubhai said he was worried and called Pravin but didn’t get any response.
The family’s worst fears were confirmed after a relative in the US was informed about the deaths by the Canadian police.
Shocked villagers were paying visits to the family to offer condolences. They said Pravin had been doing well while in India and that the ill-fated family was friendly with everyone.
Jasubhai, however, said that he and other relatives did not know why his cousin and family were going to the US. He told the BBC that he knew that the family was only going to Canada and was clueless about their plans to get into the US.
The Chaudharys are not the first from Gujarat to have met such a tragic end in an alien country. In January last year, another family surnamed Patel of four froze to death near the US-Canada border. They were also believed to be entering US territory, official sources said.
The Patels also reportedly had a decent life in India but many local people from northern Gujarat told the news outlet that people there dream of moving to foreign countries, particularly the US, to get an even better life. Some of them even get exploited by human smugglers while pursuing their dream.
The Gujarat police has been sternly dealing with such human trafficking networks operating in the state.
In case of the Chaudharys’ deaths, however, the Indian police told the BBC that they would not probe the deaths unless their Canadian counterparts approached the government of India or something came up during the investigation in Canada.
