Man charged with smuggling Indian family who died near Canada-U.S. border pleads not guilty

A man accused of helping smuggle people across the U.S.-Canada border into Minnesota, including four members of an Indian family who froze to death in 2022, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to seven counts of human smuggling.

Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 28, who prosecutors say went by the alias “Dirty Harry,” entered his plea during a brief teleconference with U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo Brisbois of Duluth, Minn.

Patel hired Steven Shand, 49, to drive the Indian nationals to the Chicago area from the Canadian border, authorities said. Shand, of Deltona, Fla., pleaded not guilty during the same hearing to four counts contained in an updated indictment against them