Ahmedabad: In the shadowy world of human smuggling, one name has repeatedly surfaced in ongoing investigations — Babuji — a mysterious figure allegedly responsible for organising a fatal migrant crossing that resulted in the drowning of a family from Gujarat in the frigid waters of the St Lawrence river, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
The victims, identified as the Chaudhari family from Vasai-Dabhla village in Mehsana — Pravin, 50, his wife Daksha, 45, daughter Vidhi, 23, and son Mitkumar, 20 — had hoped to secure a better future in the US. Instead, they became casualties of a cross-border smuggling operation allegedly controlled by ‘Babuji’, a Canada-based Gujarati also known as Babuchi or Babubhai.
Canadian investigators and sources within the Indian diaspora report that Babuji has emerged as a key figure in a transnational network smuggling undocumented Indians, primarily from Gujarat and Punjab, into the United States.