Kerry ‘regret’ at handling of Indian diplomat’s arrest

US Secretary of State John Kerry voiced regret on Wednesday over the treatment of an Indian diplomat who was strip-searched after her arrest in New York, amid an escalating row between the two countries.

The top US diplomat called India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon about the case of Devyani Khobragade, a deputy consul-general in New York, who was arrested on Thursday.

Kerry told Menon he “empathises with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms. Khobragade’s arrest and in his conversation with National Security Advisor Menon he expressed his regret,” a State Department spokeswoman said.

Khobragade was arrested last week in New York for allegedly paying a domestic worker a fraction of the minimum wage and for lying about the employee’s salary in a visa application.

The US Marshals service has confirmed that she was treated the same as all people who are processed through the federal court system, and was strip-searched and placed in a cell with other women detainees before being bailed the same day.

The diplomat’s treatment has triggered outrage in India, which has launched a series of reprisals against US diplomats based in the country, including removing security barriers from outside the embassy in New Delhi.

Kerry underscored in his call that he believed it was important “that foreign diplomats serving in the United States are accorded respect and dignity, just as we expect our own diplomats should receive overseas.”

However, Kerry also stressed that he believed in “enforcing our laws and protecting victims.”

Kerry, “like all officials in positions of responsibility inside the US government, expects that laws will be followed by everyone here in our country,” the statement from deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Harf revealed on Tuesday that the Indian embassy in Washington had been informed of the allegations against Khobragade as long ago as September.

The White House has also jumped into the fray attempting to soothe tensions by stressing the case was an “isolated incident” and should not be allowed to damage longstanding close ties with India.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Washington understood why the issue was such a sensitive one in India, where there has been public outrage, but said the incident did not reflect the broad and healthy cooperation between the two countries.

“The United States and India enjoy a broad and deep friendship and this isolated episode is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful ties that we share,” Carney said.

“We understand that this is a sensitive issue for many in India, and we are looking into the intake procedures surrounding this arrest, to ensure that all standard procedures were followed and that every opportunity for courtesy was extended.”

The outrage in India was further fuelled by an email from Khobragade in which she says she had been repeatedly stripped and cavity-searched by the US authorities.

Earlier in New Delhi, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told parliament there was a 'conspiracy' against Khobragade and asserted that she was innocent. He said India would bring back the 39-year-old diplomat and 'restore her dignity. It is my responsibility'.

'We strongly condemn the treatment meted out to the diplomat in New York. India is not over-reacting to the treatment to its diplomat by US. The nation must speak in one voice,' the external affairs minister said.

Khobragade was strip-searched, cavity-searched and swabbed for DNA after her arrest in New York on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. She was confined with criminals before being released on a $250,000 bail and made to surrender her passport. She faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted on both counts. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Tuesday, in a tit-for-tat measure, India pared down the privileges given to US diplomats in India, including withdrawing diplomatic ID cards issued by it, taking away airport passes and withdrawing extra security barricades outside the US embassy.

India says the measures it has taken are based on reciprocity as Indian diplomats in consulates in the US are not given airport passes or other benefits. In fact, the diplomatic car parking area outside the Indian embassy in Washington was turned into a public parking area over a year ago and not returned to the Indian embassy despite reminders.

Khurshid said the US will understand India's message 'loud and clear'.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the husband and two children of Khobragade's maidservant Sangeeta Richard have flown to New York. They arrived in New York on December 10, two days before Khobragade's arrest last Thursday, in what is being considered a 'distinctively odd' coincidence.

Richard went absconding in June in the US and the Indian embassy cancelled her official passport, but she continues to remain in the US. Richard is learnt to have demanded $10,000, an Indian passport and immigration clearance from Khobragade to enable her to stay on in the US in what is being termed as an 'attempt at extortion'.

India is demanding the unconditional release and taking back of all charges against Khobragade who was shifted to India's permanent UN mission in New York where she will enjoy full diplomatic immunity that her consular status did not provide.

India also denied that its move to remove barricades around the US embassy in New Delhi would in any way impact the security of the mission, saying there was adequate security in place, including a police picket and patrolling.

The police barricades on Nyaya Marg in New Delhi's diplomatic enclave had come up following the 9/11 attacks in the US. On Tuesday, the police barricades were removed, while the police picket remained.

India said the US authorities failed to observe diplomatic protocol by failing to even inform the head of India's New York mission about orders given for the arrest of Khobragade last week. She was 'picked off the street' and handcuffed in public.

US officials on Tuesday spoke of a 'broad and deep friendship' and an 'important relationship' with India, but expressed no regret, leave aside an 'unconditional apology' demanded by India.

US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said 'an isolated episode' should not 'impact the bilateral relationship.'

Adding a new dimension to the case, Harf also claimed that the State Department had advised the Indian embassy 'in writing in September of allegations of abuse made by an Indian national against the deputy consul'.

Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati raked up a controversy by saying the government reacted late in the case as Khobragade was a Dalit.

'I know I should not bring caste into this but the overall conduct with this girl was inappropriate. The central government reacted late because she was a Dalit,' Mayawati said in the Rajya Sabha.

Read more: Indian Official: Maidtried to blackmail diplomat