Devyani Khobragade's arrest: India demands US apology

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told NDTV in an exclusive interview today, "We want more than a regret." He also said "What was done here is unacceptable." (Watch full interview)

US Secretary of State John Kerry had called up India's National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon last night and expressed "regret". Senior minister Kamal Nath said today, "We have made it clear that America has to apologise in the matter....and accept that they have made a mistake. Only then we will be satisfied."

Mr Khurshid refused to comment on Mr Bharara's long defense of the diplomat's arrest, asking "Who is Preet Bharara that we should take him seriously?" The minister said India would only deal with Mr Kerry. (Read)

A spokesperson in his ministry later said, "There is only one victim in this case. That victim is Devyani Khobragade - a serving Indian Diplomat on mission in the United States. The action taken against her was not in keeping with the Vienna Convention." (Read more...)

Mr Bharara had said in his statement, "One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?" He was referring to Sangeeta Richard, the domestic help that Ms Khobragade is accused by the US of exploiting. (US prosecutor defends Indian diplomat's arrest)

India has questioned the manner in which Ms Richard's husband and daughter were flown to the US. "It needs to be asked what right a foreign government has to "evacuate" Indian citizens from India while cases are pending against them in the Indian legal system," asked MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. (Watch: MEA spokesperson's press briefing | full text of the statement here)

Mr Akbaruddin also said, "There were no courtesies in the treatment that was meted out to the diplomat, under the normal definition of that word in the English language." Mr Bharara has claimed that Ms Khobragade was "accorded courtesies well beyond what other defendants, most of whom are American citizens, are accorded." He noted that she was served coffee and allowed phone calls. (Read more...)

After her arrest last week, Ms Khobragade 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 Sangeeta Richard and paying her less than minimum wages and forcing her to work for more than 40 hours a week.

India has informed the United Nations that Devyani Khobragade is now a member of the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, which will entitle Ms Khobragade to full immunity. The US State Department has to issue a new identity card that would give her this immunity. (Read more...)

The US began damage control after India pared down the privileges of American diplomats and removed security barricades from outside the US embassy in Delhi, in "reciprocal measures" when details of Ms Khobragade's arrest became public.(Row over diplomat's arrest intensifies)