Lover's phone was end of line for people smuggler in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Nearly ten months after four people from Dingucha village of Gandhinagar died while crossing the desolate Canada-US border, Gujarat Police nabbed the main accused in the people smuggling case, Bharat Patel alias Bobby, from his girlfriend's home in Bhadaj. He was caught as his girlfriend, who was under surveillance, told a staffer of her children's school that "their father will fetch the kids" because she was ill.Bobby was wanted in one of the worst people smuggling tragedies. The four Dingucha residents who perished in January this year were Jagdish Patel, 35, his wife Vaishali, 33, and their children Vihangi, 12, and Dharmik, 3. They froze to death in the unforgiving terrain."His girlfriend Tarla Khodabhai Patel was under surveillance and cops were closely monitoring her calls. On December 11, she called the Bopal school to inform a staffer about her husband picking up the kids," said a source in Gujarat Police.The police officer said that Tarla and Bobby had known each other for about eight years, from the time he had sent her family members including her husband and in-laws to the US illegally. "Bobby fell in love with her and did not allow her to go to the US. He then started living with her in Bhadaj," the officer said.Cops have recovered 94 passports from Bobby's office in Vadaj and an inquiry is underway to determine how he obtained them from the passport office. After his involvement was established in the Dingucha case, he changed various locations in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mumbai, and Delhi. For the past two months, he had been living in Prahladnagar with a cook. But he did not have any contact with neighbours, nor did he use a cellphone. In July 2021, Bobby had been named in a case involving a gambling den. The State Monitoring Cell of Gujarat Police raided the den, Manpasand Gymkhana, in Dariapur in which Bobby was one of the three partners. His girlfriend's phone had been under surveillance even though she was not an accused in any of the two cases.