The Congress on Wednesday expressed sadness over 'pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated' while being deported from the United States and recalled that America had to express regret over the treatment meted out to India diplomat Devyani Khobragade in 2013 after the then United Progressive Alliance government retaliated sharply.
'Prime Minister Modi should sit with Trump and find a solution to this issue.'
Three months after she was arrested and charged with visa fraud before being freed on a bail bond, Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's motion to dismiss the government's indictment on the ground of her diplomatic immunity was granted Wednesday by a Federal Judge in Manhattan.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade does not enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution on charges of visa fraud and making false statements, the US State Department has said in papers submitted before a New York court.
The full statement of the MEA on the latest in the case relating to Devyani Khobragade:
Uttam Khobragade, the retired Indian Administrative Service officer and father of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade who returned to India last week after being indicted for visa fraud in the United States, on Wednesday said he would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Government has told the Delhi high court that Devyani Khobragade obtained US and Indian passports for her two daughters in violation of law.
After coming to know that Khobragade's daughters were having US passports, the MEA had revoked the children's Indian passports and they challenged this in the Delhi high court.
Expelled Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, in effect, has been barred entry into the United States.
When diplomat Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was indicted by a grand jury on January 9, she had full diplomatic immunity and the proceedings against her should have been dismissed, Daniel N Arshack, her attorney told the court.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has moved a federal court here to dismiss the visa fraud case against her, saying there is lack of personal jurisdiction since she had been accorded full diplomatic immunity by the US Department of State.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has requested a court here to extend the deadline for charging her in a visa fraud case, saying the "pressure of the impending" deadline is interfering with the ability of the parties to have meaningful discussions on the issue.
Senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who returned to India last week after being indicted for visa fraud in the United States, arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The US Marshals Service has confirmed that Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was subjected to "strip search" after her arrest in New York last week, and subjected to the same search procedures as other arrestees.
PM Modi had in the past rejected requests from some ministers for appointment of secretaries who were considered close to them.
Devyani Khobragade's lawyer on Wednesday said the United States authorities goofed up in the investigation and arrest of the Indian diplomat on visa fraud charges as a federal agent made a "serious" mistake in reading the paperwork submitted regarding her maid's salary.
The United States on Tuesday virtually justified the reported strip search by New York police of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, saying "standard procedures" have been followed during her arrest.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, whose arrest soured India-US relations, was on Friday re-indicted on visa fraud charges, a couple of days after a US court dismissed an earlier indictment.
Unfazed by the outrage over the arrest and subsequent treatment of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the India-born US prosecutor Preet Bharara defended the action against her and confirmed that her maid's family has been "evacuated" from India.
Whatever action is required as a result of the arrest is being taken at the level of the Indian government, diplomatic sources at the Indian consulate in New York tell Rediff.com's Suman Guha Mozumder.
India on Monday made it clear to the United States that it cannot be "business as usual" between the two sides till the Devyani Khobragade issue is resolved.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has asked a court in New York to dismiss the indictment against her and terminate any 'open' arrest warrants in the visa fraud case, arguing that she was 'cloaked' in diplomatic immunity and cannot face criminal prosecution in the United States
Showing no signs of yielding to India's demand, the United States on Saturday said that Devyani Khobragade's transfer to India's Permanent Mission at the United Nations will not give her diplomatic immunity retroactively and the visa fraud case against her would remain.
'While the Khobragade affair has "upset and diverted attention, it does not mean there is a fundamental flaw in the US-India relationship",' former American envoy Frank Wisner tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa.
India tried to work out a legal solution, but that has not been possible. The final outcome thus is not the best one, but the optimal solution to a sub-optimal case, reports Sheela Bhatt.
Ignoring the United States viewpoint, India has refused to consider the Devyani Khobragade episode as "closed", saying there are "residual" issues which need to be addressed.
The United States is proceeding with the prosecution of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade and has no intention to withdraw the case of visa fraud against her.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is likely to file chargesheet against diplomat Devyani Khobragade and her father Uttam Khobragade in the Adarsh Housing scam for allegedly acquiring a flat on the basis of false affidavit.
With senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade's strip search triggering a major row between India and the United States, the invasive post-arrest procedure is again in the limelight over a year after America's top court ruled in its favour.
'It is my job to resolve the issue, and we are looking at all options,' Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid tells Sheela Bhatt.
The investigations into and actions being taken by the US State Department's Diplomatic Security Service against Devyani Khobragade were not shared with Secretary of State John F Kerry, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, or Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal, reveals Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa from Washington, DC.
Terming the Khobragade episode "extremely irksome", Union External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Sunday said it was time there should be a "closure" to the issue for which the US should find a "political solution".
India should fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the State Department insists.
In 10 months, her property value has zoomed almost six times
The external affairs ministry on Friday did not rule out any further disciplinary action against senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who had hit the headlines last year after being arrested in the US in a visa fraud case.
There is something more than meets the eye over the needless harassment of a Indian diplomat in New York, says Seema Guha
In a new twist, it has now emerged that senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade enjoyed full diplomatic immunity including from personal arrest and detention on December 12 when she was taken into custody by the United States authorities in a visa fraud case.
Devyani Khobragade, deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York, who was arrested two weeks ago on changes of allegedly submitting fraudulent documents in support of her maid and babysitter to the US State Department, will have to appear in court on January 13.
'Dr Khobragade is now a Counsellor without any specific work responsibility at the PMI. There is not going to be any work for her at the mission at least for now. This is an interim measure to help her so she can get diplomatic immunity and get over this situation.'
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