AHMEDABAD: Bharat alias Bobby Patel - the 47-year-old 'Dingucha kingpin' suspected of having sent four of a family from Gandhinagar on an illegal journey to the US that ended in their deaths early in January - has finally been caught. The Gujarat police arrested him late Monday from the Bhadaj area of Ahmedabad when he allegedly arrived to meet his ailing partner.
Police sources said a team of the state monitoring cell, which checks gambling and the sale of liquor in the city, received information that Bharat Patel was spotted at a house in Bhadaj. The police rushed to the spot and captured Patel.
An officer from the Gujarat police, privy to the development, said, "Bharat Patel is one of the most notorious illegal immigration agents from Gujarat. He has 28 legally issued passports, some even containing his biometric information. He changed minor details and got multiple passports issued at different times through passport offices in the western parts of the country, including Mumbai and Ahmedabad. He used these passports to slip in and out of the country."
The officer added, "The Dingucha resident started off doing odd jobs in the village. Today, he runs a major migrant smuggling racket from India to the US through Turkey and Mexico. He first established his base in Dingucha village, then later began working with human smugglers from Delhi, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh."
Bharat Patel is suspected of having helped 1,500 people from North Gujarat obtain fake passports.
The 'Dingucha kingpin' is also suspected of having helped 1,500 people from North Gujarat obtain fake passports. "His name cropped up in the investigation into the IELTS paper scam in North Gujarat. We also suspect Bharat Patel had sent six people from North Gujarat to the US. The six had to be rescued by the US authorities after their boat capsized and they almost drowned while illegally crossing the St Regis river on the Canada-US border," said the officer.
The Gujarat police and state agencies began hunting for human smugglers after the Canadian police found Jagdish Patel, 35, his wife, Vaishali, 33, and their children Vihanga, 12, and Dharmik, 3, frozen to death in an empty field on January 19. They had died just 12m from the US border.
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