The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the alleged involvement of some Canadian colleges and several Indian entities, mostly based in Gujarat, in a money-laundering case involving the trafficking of Indians to the US using Canada as a pit stop by acquiring student visas, sources said on Wednesday.

The sources said the investigation was linked to the death of a four-member Indian family hailing from Dingucha village in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar. The family, including two children, froze to death while attempting to cross the US-Canada border in
January 2022.

Earlier, the ED had taken cognisance of an Ahmedabad police FIR against Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel, who emerged as the main accused in the case, and a few others, to file a complaint under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The victims — Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishaliben, in her mid-30s, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and three-year-old son Dharmik — were found dead near Emerson town in Manitoba province by Canadian authorities on January 19, 2022. The family had reportedly paid smugglers to navigate their illegal entry into the US and were part of a larger 11-member group of undocumented migrants from India.

“A probe revealed that Bhavesh Patel and others had allegedly hatched a well-planned human trafficking conspiracy to send Indians to the US through Canada via illegal channels. As part of the modus operandi, the accused got youths who wanted to go to the US illegally admitted to colleges and universities in Canada,” an ED
official said.

The official added that the racket involved bringing people to Canada on student visas and illegally transporting them across the border into the US.

The accused, he said, were hand in glove with some Canadian colleges. “They applied for Canadian student visas for people willing to go to the US. Once these people
reached Canada, instead of joining the college, they illegally crossed the US-Canada border,” the ED official said.

The central agency suspects that of the 262 such colleges in Canada, a few, which are located near the US border, are involved in the trafficking of Indian nationals.

“Many Indians were lured into the racket and charged between ₹55 lakh and ₹60 lakh per person. The fee received by the colleges based in Canada was remitted back to the individuals’ account, after having pocketed a commission,” an agency source claimed.

The sources said illegal immigration from India along the US-Canada border has surged, with over 14,000 Indian migrants arrested at the border in the past year. According to US estimates, over 725,000 undocumented Indians live in America.

Earlier this month, the ED had conducted searches at eight locations in Mumbai, Nagpur, Gandhinagar and Vadodara in connection with the human-trafficking case.

The investigation has revealed that two entities, one based in Mumbai and the other in Nagpur, had entered into an agreement for admission of Indians to foreign universities upon the payment of a commission.

The agency said that the latest searches found that about 25,000 students were being referred by one entity and more than 10,000 students by the other to various colleges based outside India every year.

“So far, we have come across around 1,700 agents/ partners based in Gujarat and around 3,500 agents/ partners of other entities across the country, of which around 800 are currently active,” another ED official said.

As part of the nexus, nearly 112 colleges based in Canada are found to have entered into an agreement with one of the Indian entities in Maharashtra and more than 150 with the other.

“Their involvement in the Dingucha family trafficking case is under investigation,” the agency official said.

So far, the ED has frozen ₹19 lakh in bank deposits and seized some “incriminating” documents, digital devices and two vehicles in connection with the probe.