Indian diplomat leaves US under immunity
An Indian envoy who was arrested and strip searched in the US is granted diplomatic protection and asked to leave – meaning she will not face charges.
The case caused a serious rift between the United States and India, which described Devyani Khobragade’s treatment as outrageous and heavy-handed.
“As a family, (we) would not like to touch the soil of the country (USA) which treat human being in such a inhuman way in an utter violation of the human right, utter violation of the Geneva convention,” her father Uttam Khobragade, a retired bureaucrat, said.
Ms Khobragade had been facing charges of underpaying her Indian-born housekeeper and lying about it on a visa form.
Her departure from the US could signal a cooling of tensions and give both countries a way to claim victory, although her father said the case was a triumph for India because his daughter was leaving the US with full diplomatic immunity.
The issue of immunity is key to the case, which erupted a month ago when Ms Khobragade, a 39-year-old mother of two, was arrested.
She was strip-searched and kept in a cell with other criminal defendants before being released on bail of $250,000.
In recent weeks, federal officials have said that Ms Khobragade’s immunity is limited to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.
But on Thursday, a US government official in Washington said the US had accepted India’s request to accredit her to the United Nations, which confers broader immunity.
It would be almost unprecedented for the US to deny such a request unless the diplomat was a national security risk.
The United States then asked the government of India to waive the newly granted immunity so they could prosecute her, but India refused.
Immunity move
The US then “requested her departure” from the country, said one American government official, who wasn’t authorised to speak about the case publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Authorities say Ms Khobragade claimed to pay her Indian maid $4,500 per month but gave her far less than the US minimum wage.
The indictment said Ms Khobragade had made multiple false representations to US authorities, or caused them to be made, to obtain a visa for a personal domestic worker.
She planned to bring the worker to the United States in September 2012 when she worked at the Consulate General of India in New York, according to the indictment.
Ms Khobragade, who served as India’s deputy consul general in New York, has maintained her innocence.
“An entire nation, (the) Indian parliament is aware the charges were false and I am confident (the) government will continue (its) efforts to compel (the) USA for dropping the charges,” her father said on Friday.
In a letter to the judge on Thursday, prosecutors said there was no need for an arraignment because Ms Khobragade had “very recently” been given diplomatic immunity status.
The charges will remain pending until she can be brought to court to face them, through a waiver of immunity or her return to the US without immunity status, the letter from the office of US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The case has caused an outcry in India, where officials say Khobragade is the victim and was being blackmailed by her maid Sangeeta Richard.
Uttam Khobragade also criticised Ms Richard on Friday, saying that she claimed actions had been taken in Indian courts to silence her.
“This is casting aspersions on our own country by taking money from the foreign government, casting aspersions on the sovereignty of the country. What is the dictionary word for this person? What is the dictionary word? Traitor,” he said.
The government in New Delhi has unleashed a steady stream of retaliatory measures since Ms Khobragade’s arrest.
Some of the moves, such as preventing the American Centre in New Delhi from screening movies, are seen as little more than needling the US.
But other actions have raised some alarm, including the removal of concrete traffic barriers around the US Embassy and revoking diplomats’ ID cards.