NEW DELHI, April 13: India on Thursday publicly rebuked its ambassador to New Zealand after he defied an order to return home and accused him of spreading ‘scurrilous information’.

High Commissioner Harish Kumar Dogra was recalled after reportedly antagonising New Zealand’s Indian community by refusing travel visas to India.

But he has refused to return to India, and New Zealand newspapers said he has accused his foreign secretary Shyam Saran of bringing shame on the country.

“Circulation of such scurrilous material is not becoming of a senior member of the Indian Foreign Service,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.

“The Ministry of External Affairs will deal with matter in accordance with its well established procedures.” He did not elaborate.

Thursday’s Dominion Post and Indian Newslink newspapers said they had received a copy of a letter Dogra sent Saran.

In the letter, Dogra described the recall order as ill-advised and illegal and urged Saran to resign.

“What have I been charged with, why am I being hanged without even being given an opportunity to be heard?” said Dogra’s letter, dated April 10.

Dogra defended his decision to refuse some visas as well as his handling of the high commission’s finances.

He also accused the Indian government of releasing slanderous accusations against him to the Indian media.

“You have made India a laughing stock in this part of the world. You have not only humiliated me but brought shame on the country,” he wrote.—AFP