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| India asks US to remove embassy officer |
| Demand adds twist to row over arrest of Indian consular officer indicted for visa fraud but allowed to leave US. Last updated: 10 Jan 2014 22:31 |
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/01/india-asks-us-remove-embassy-officer-2014110135450998555.html
India has asked the United States to withdraw an embassy employee in a fresh act of retaliation just as a dispute over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York appeared to be drawing to a close.
Relations between the two governments have been in crisis since December 12 when Devyani Khobragade, a senior Indian consulate employee, was arrested for alleged visa fraud and making false statements relating to the employment of a domestic servant.
On Friday, Khobragade arrived in the Indian capital New Delhi after leaving the US overnight.
| I just want to thank my nation for the support that they have given me. Devyani Khobragade, Indian diplomat |
"I just want to thank my nation for the support that they have given me," Khobragade said, refusing to comment further.
She was charged in a New York court on Thursday, but was granted full diplomatic immunity by the US shortly beforehand, which allowed her to return home on Friday.
The decision to risk escalating the row again by demanding the withdrawal of a US embassy officer in New Delhi came as a surprise.
The American was a "similar rank" to Khobragade and is suspected of having helped the family of her maid, Sangeeta Richard, travel to America where they were granted protection by prosecutors.
The State Department said it was complying, although with "deep regret".
US prosecutors said that the family of the maid were evacuated from India to the US because of attempts to intimidate them.
'False' charges
Syed Akbaruddin, India's Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Friday that Khobragade was being transferred to a post in New Delhi.
Federal prosecutors announced an indictment against Khobragade on Thursday.
However, a letter to judges from prosecutors said Khobragade had been given full diplomatic status and the case against her would not proceed.
"There will not need to be an arraignment on the indictment scheduled at this time," the letter said. "We understand that the defendant was very recently accorded diplomatic immunity status.
Khobragade has asserted that the charges against her were "false and baseless".
| Analysis: The diplomatic fallout of 'Nannygate' |
"The charges against me are false and baseless. I look forward to proving them wrong," she told India's PTI news agency before boarding the plane back to India.
Uttam Khobragade, her father, said his daughter rejected an offer of a plea bargain to resolve the dispute and be allowed to stay in the US. Her children and husband, a US citizen of Indian origin, will soon follow her to India, he said.
Khobragade was strip-searched during her detention, a procedure that caused outrage in India and prompted John Kerry, US secretary of state, to express regret to Indian officials.
'Waiver of immunity'
After her arrest the Indian government transferred Khobragade, from her role at the Indian consulate to the UN mission in New York - a transfer that afforded her diplomatic immunity.
The US State Department is given the option to refuse such transfers.
However, Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, quoted a US government official as saying that it would have been unprecedented to do so.
Meanwhile, Richard, the maid, in her first public statement since the news broke last month, said that she suffered while working for Khobragade and asked other domestic workers not to let anyone "exploit" them.
"I never thought that things would get so bad here, that I would work so much that I did not have time to sleep or eat or have time to myself," Richard said in a statement released by the anti-trafficking group Safe Horizon.
Documents filed in a Manhattan court show Khobragade declared paying her maid $4,500 a month, when in fact she received only $500 a month - about $3.31 per hour and far less than the $9.75 minimum wage in the state of New York
COMMENT:
A women of a nation of prostitute and rapist country possess shame of striping down for committing crime and violating the law of US is a joke not only of the century but centuries. Another joke is that the Foreign Minister of India and vowed that he would get the striped woman back to the country till then he would not show his face. Was this Promise made by the Foreign Minister to get her back home and finally test her personally if she had not been raped while she was in striped condition.
Reporters say had she been stripped in Russia then the Foreign Minister would not mind because Russian law enforcement people stripes woman and does whatever they have to in secrecy. Reporters added India is not hurt because of making her naked but was offended because US does everything openly keeping all event within the knowledge of a citizens. In this case the husband and the child are US citizens. So it was mandatory for the law enforcement official to keep her husband in the knowledge of the fact that nothing more that stripping her was done as per law while in the custody of the law enforcement department unlike Russian.
Reports attending a national function said that the neighboring countries PM threatened the Super Powers meaning except Russia and India. She stated to the effect that she would not bow to any pressure of any sort like India to any super power however big that power might be so long India and Russia supports her. Smiling confidently seemingly that she has placed a tight slap on the face of the super powers of West, China and EU countries including Japan, Australia and Muslim world and all others.
Reporters attending the function for a moment thought she was showing sympathy towards India because of the diplomats case with US but on the contrary they soon realized that she was boasting of her victory pushing aside all requests of super powers and even UN.
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