Four missing from 'NRI village' in Gujarat on way to 'American dream'

Near the village school, a few youngsters are sitting idle on a cemented platform. "With (sic) without IELTS study in (sic) UK, CANADA..." is painted on the wall behind them. Another wall-size painting nearby advertises, "Holidays & Immigration, student visa, Canada, P.R.”

A stone's throw away from this wall is the house of a Patel family whose four members, left for Canada sometime in the second week of January in what their relatives claim on "visitor visas", are untraceable. Several reports have suggested they were found frozen to death far away at the Canada-US border in a suspected bid to cross over to the US as illegal immigrants.

The family members at Dingucha village in Kalol taluka, about 40 km from the state capital Gandhinagar, haven't received any official communication about the whereabouts of their four relatives as of Tuesday. However, the description of four bodies found by Canadian authorities in Manitoba province is said to be matching with their profiles — a 39-year-old man, his 37-year-old wife, 17-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son.

The worried family hasn't been able to contact them since January 19, the date Canadian authorities issued an official statement on the discovery of four dead bodies. On Tuesday, the authorities issued another statement on Twitter, stating, an investigation to confirm the identity is going on.

At Dingucha village, the house of four missing persons stands locked. The occupants left the village to avoid the media, which have been frequenting the village since Saturday.

"We haven't received anything official concerning this particular family. Every news is coming through the media. All I can say is that a team of CID (Crime) came to get the details of the family members. I don't know anything beyond this," Jayesh Chaudhary, village secretary (talati), told DH at the panchayat office.

Jaswant Patel, the cousin of the missing family, told DH, "After failing to contact them and learning from media reports, we wrote an email to the government of India for help and information. We haven't received any reply yet."

Gandhinagar collector Kuldip Arya told DH that he had not received any word.

The sleepy village with urban facilities has nearly 3,300 population as per the 2011 census, out of which the majority of them are from the Patidar community. Roughly, 50% of Patidar households have relatives in the United States and Australia. The surrounding is dotted with season crops like wheat, mustard, tobacco, among others.

"The landholding is so small that a family with five members can't survive on farming alone," said a neighbour of the Patel family.

The missing 39-year-old is said to have worked in a school briefly, tried his hand in selling clothes and did farming before leaving abroad.

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