India demands US drop charges against diplomat

India yesterday demanded that the US unilaterally withdraw the case against a woman diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched in New York last week on charges of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her housekeeper.

“We have asked for an explanation for the degrading treatment given to our diplomat and have asked for the cases against her to be dropped and withdrawn immediately,” foreign minister Salman Khurshid said.

“Whatever has been done by the US agencies is unacceptable,” he added.

Mr Khurshid also indicated that US secretary of state John Kerry's expression of regret in his call to India's national security adviser Shivshankar Menon late on Wednesday night, over the treatment of diplomat Devyani Khobragade while in custody, was not enough.

Indian sensitivities
Other Indian government leaders also suggested Mr Kerry did not go far enough to assuage Indian sensitivities.

“They [the US] should clearly apologise and accept they have made a mistake. Only then will we be satisfied,” parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said.

Ms Khobragade (39), India’s deputy consul-general, was released on bail of $250,000 last Friday after giving up her passport and pleading not guilty to charges of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for Sangeeta Richard, her Indian housekeeper,

She was also accused of paying Ms Richard less than a third of the US minimum wage of €6.58 per hour and faces a maximum 15 years in jail if convicted on both counts.

Class-conscious
The case has triggered outrage across class-conscious India, where strip-searching a privileged woman like Ms Khobragade would be abhorred.

This indignation was exacerbated after US prosecutor Preet Bharara publicly defended Ms Khobragade’s treatment.

The India-born attorney also questioned why there was outrage over the alleged treatment meted out to the diplomat, but “precious little outrage” over what the maid had undergone.

However, foreign minister Mr Khurshid took issue with the entire premise of the case and accused Ms Richard of blackmailing her employer.

He claimed that over the summer, Ms Richard had threatened to go to the police unless Ms Khobragade arranged a new passport for her, along with a work visa and a large sum of money. “It’s a clear conspiracy against an Indian diplomat,” Mr Khurshid said.

India retaliated against US diplomats in Delhi by revoking their ID cards, which incorporate certain privileges.