File photo: Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade
Responding strongly to Preet Bharara, the US federal prosecutor whose decision to charge highly ranked diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York last week created a storm in India, the government today said that the 39-year-old diplomat is the only victim in this case. (
Row over diplomat's arrest: 10 latest developments)
"There is only one victim in this case, that victim is Devyani Khobragade," the Ministry of External Affairs said today, adding "There were no courtesies in the treatment that was meted out to the diplomat." (
Read: Full text of India's statement)
Even though the
US yesterday sought to ease tensions with India over the episode with Secretary of State John Kerry calling National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and expressing "regret", Mr Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a lengthy statement today said, "Ms Khobragade was accorded courtesies well beyond what other defendants, most of whom are American citizens, are accorded. She was not, as has been incorrectly reported, arrested in front of her children. The agents arrested her in the most discreet way possible, and unlike most defendants, she was not then handcuffed or restrained." (
Read: 'Agents brought her coffee', says Preet Bharara on diplomat's arrest) | (
Read: full text of Preet Bharara's statement)
India says Ms Khobragade was handcuffed on the street when she was dropping her daughter off to school last Thursday. After her arrest, she was strip-searched, swabbed for DNA and subjected to a cavity search and was then placed in a cell with drug addicts. The US has accused Ms Khobragade of lying on the visa application for an Indian national who worked at her home, paying her less than minimum wages and forcing her to work for more than 40 hours a week.
Yesterday, in a sensational charge, India had accused US authorities of conspiracy and immigration fraud by allowing the family of Sangeeta Richard, the domestic help of Ms Khobragade, to move to America.
"What right a foreign Government has to 'evacuate' Indian citizens from India while cases are pending against them in the legal system... Why is the legal process in a friendly and democratic country interfered with in this manner," the MEA today said. (
Watch: No need to take Preet Bharara seriously, Salman Khurshid tells NDTV)