Four more from Gujarat feared drowned on US-Canada border

The death count from last week's boat capsize in the St Lawrence river along the Quebec-New York border may go up as four people from Gujarat are unaccounted for, including a couple in their 30s and their four-year-old child who Canadian authorities suspect drowned in the cold, storm-tossed waters while allegedly making a illegal crossing to the US.

There's no word about these four and Canadian agencies are looking for them. "Not eight, but 19 people were probably on that boat," said a source in Gujarat police.

Canadian police and border guards found eight bodies on March 30 - three of them from Gujarat's Mehsana. They were identified as 50-year-old Pravin Chaudhary, his daughter Vidhi, 24, and son Mitkumar, 20. The other bodies were said to be that of eastern Europeans. Chaudhary's wife Daksha, 45, is missing and she hasn't contacted anyone yet, raising suspicion that she may have drowned too.

The Gujarat police source said on Monday that investigators suspect a young couple and their kid from Mansa in Gandhinagar were with the Chaudharys on the boat. "Human trafficking agents had sent the family on tourist visas. They arrived in Canada on February 3 and stayed there for around two months, before taking the boat to the US," the source said. Gujarat police deduced from signs found in the latest tragedy that the same set of human traffickers was involved in past cases of Gujaratis falling prey to illegal immigration rackets.

In January last year, a family of four from Gandhinagar froze to death after they were reportedly separated in a blizzard from a larger group of Indians that made it across the border to the US in -35 C temperature. The less-patrolled rivers are a preferred route as they meander in and out of the two countries. Six illegal immigrants from Gujarat were rescued from the St Regis, a tributary of the St Lawrence, while trying to sneak into the US in April last year.