Strip-searched woman departs New York after getting immunity

The United States and India ended a monthlong feud over a diplomat who was arrested, strip-searched and charged in New York for visa fraud with a deal on Friday allowing the envoy to fly home.

The row began on Dec 12 when Indian consulate official Devyani Khobragade was arrested on suspicion of filing false documents to obtain a visa for her domestic servant and then underpaying her.

Her arrest outside her children's school and treatment in custody, when the mother of two said she was subjected to a cavity search, outraged India, which claimed she should have had diplomatic immunity.

US prosecutors disputed the claim because she was a consular official, which led New Delhi to request that Washington grant her a G1 visa given to diplomats at India's United Nations mission, which is also in New York.

"Devyani was given a G1 visa by the US, according her full diplomatic immunity. India transfers her back. She is now flying home," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said in a tweet that confirmed the deal.

Just hours earlier, prosecutors had filed charges against her in a New York court.

A US government official in Washington who wasn't authorized to speak about the case publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity said the US accepted India's request to accredit her to the UN, which confers broader immunity than what she enjoyed as a consular official. It would be almost unprecedented for the US to deny such a request unless the diplomat was a national security risk.

Washington asked New Delhi to waive the immunity, but the Indians refused, so the US then "requested her departure" from the country, the official said.

Huge cost

Khobragade's lawyer, Daniel Arshack, said Khobragade, whose nighttime flight from the Kennedy Airport was delayed a couple of hours before finally taking off, was "pleased to be returning to her country".

"Her head is held high," the lawyer said. "She knows she has done no wrong, and she looks forward to assuring that the truth is known."

The deal ends the dispute, but the two countries that had embraced each other as strategic partners took part in weeks of feisty exchanges that have left resentment on both sides.

In a swift retaliatory action, India on Friday asked the US embassy in New Delhi to withdraw an officer.

India has also removed extra security barriers at the US embassy in New Delhi, has demanded contract details for domestic staff employed by US diplomats and even stopped the mission from importing duty-free alcohol.

On Wednesday, India ordered an embassy leisure center popular with US expatriates in the capital to stop admitting non-diplomatic members, while scheduled visits by US officials to India have been canceled.

The US, through presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has invested heavily in improving ties with India, which it has embraced as part of its "pivot" to Asia.

India has benefited from US backing to gain access to foreign nuclear energy technology, and Washington has become an important arms supplier and key market for India's software and IT services exports.

The row exposed a gulf in perceptions and values between the two countries.

Khobragade, a wealthy 39-year-old, was seen at home as the victim of heavy-handed policing, and her treatment was viewed as a humiliation of India by the world's superpower.

Domestic servants are routine for the middle classes in India, where few employees have contracts, many are abused, and none makes even a fraction of the US minimum wage.

In the US, there was little public sympathy for a woman allegedly exploiting a vulnerable employee and who had lied to bring her into the country.

US prosecutors said they extended courtesies to Khobragade but that a strip search - unthinkable in India conducted on an educated woman - was standard practice for anyone taken into custody.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has voiced regret over Khobragade's treatment. But he did little to temper the row, with Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid vowing not to stop until he restored the "dignity" of Khobragade.

AFP-AP

(China Daily 01/11/2014 page8)