Harshkumar Patel asks US court to quash his conviction
A U.S. court has been asked to overturn the conviction and sentence of Harshkumar Patel, a man found guilty in a human smuggling case linked to the 2022 freezing death of an Indian family of four near the Manitoba-Minnesota border.Patel was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. He has appealed, saying legal errors affected his trial. He is now representing himself after raising concerns about his attorney last year, according to court documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals.The document said there were problems with the way the jury was directed and the way the sentence was applied. Patel asked the court to quash his conviction on all counts or overturn some of the charges and send the case back for a new trial.Patel and his co-defendant Steve Shand were convicted in November 2024 by a federal jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The jury took less than 90 minutes to convict the two men on charges including illegally bringing immigrants into the United States, transporting them and profiting from them.The case stems from a tragic incident in January 2022, when a family in Gujarat froze to death while trying to walk from Manitoba into Minnesota during a severe snowstorm. The victims include 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his 37-year-old wife Vaishali, 11-year-old daughter Vihangi and 3-year-old son Dharmik. Their bodies were later found in a snow-covered field about 12 meters from the US border.The temperature that night dropped to minus 23 degrees Celsius, with a cold wind making it feel closer to minus 35 to minus 38 degrees Celsius. The family walked in the deep snow for hours wearing very little clothing before slowly freezing to death.Patel was identified as the organizer of a smuggling network who hired Shand, a Florida resident, to transport immigrants after they entered the United States. Shand was arrested that evening after he was found trapped in a van with other Indian nationals near the Minnesota border. He was later sentenced to six and a half years in prison, followed by supervised release.Separately, Shand filed a motion with the Court of Appeal last month seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence. His filing claims the traffic stop that led to his arrest was illegal and raises questions about the sentencing decisions, particularly the finding that he was responsible for the deaths of an Indian family who died while crossing through snow.It also noted that Suntech “did not know and had no control over [human smuggling operation] Leaders decided to allow a family with young children to cross in unfavorable weather conditions. “A judge had previously rejected requests for acquittal or ordering a retrial in April 2025, finding there was sufficient evidence against the pair.
