NEW YORK: An Indian diplomat was re-indicted on Friday on US visa fraud charges that touched off an international stir after she was arrested and strip-searched last year.
The new indictment, filed on Friday, essentially just reinstates the charges against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade — charges that now arrive with her out of the country. A judge had dismissed last year’s virtually identical indictment on Wednesday on diplomatic immunity grounds, but left a door open to federal prosecutors to revive the case and they suggested they would.
Khobragade’s lawyer, Daniel Arshack, had no immediate comment on Friday. He said on Wednesday that re-indicting his client “might be viewed an aggressive act and one that (prosecutors) would be ill-advised to pursue.” Khobragade is back in India, and it’s unclear when, if ever, she might appear in court in New York again.
Khobragade was a deputy consul general in New York when she was arrested in December near her children’s Manhattan school.
Prosecutors said she lied to the government to get her Indian housekeeper a work visa, claiming she was paying the maid $500 per month while actually paying her less than $3 per hour. She had pleaded not guilty while also arguing she was immune from prosecution.
The arrest sparked an outcry in India, particularly because of the strip-search. The US Marshals said Khobragade was treated no differently than others who are arrested, and US Attorney Preet Bharara said she indeed was afforded courtesies most Americans wouldn’t get, such as being allowed to make phone calls for two hours to arrange child care and sort out personal matters.
Bharara, who is himself Indian-born, also said Khobragade wasn’t handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children and was given coffee and offered food while detained.
Still, many in India saw the arrest as deeply disrespectful. Indian officials also said the housekeeper had tried to blackmail the diplomat, which the woman’s advocates disputed.
The episode roiled US-Indian relations, with India taking such steps as removing concrete traffic barriers around the US Embassy and revoking diplomats’ ID cards. After being indicted, Khobragade complied with a Department of State request to leave the US, and the Indian government then asked Washington to withdraw a diplomat from the US Embassy in New Delhi. The US complied.—AP
