Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday assured justice to the father of India’s Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade, who was ill-treated, arrested and harassed by US authorities.
“Yes, he met me. He told me everything about the incident. Immediately, I have spoken to the concerned people for action. She will get justice,” Shinde told reporters here. Soon after Shinde’s statement, the Delhi Police swung into action by removingthe bar ricades of the US Embassy in Delhi. The Home Minister was speaking after Uttam Khobragade, Devyani’s father, met him seeking his help for justice to her.
later, Khobragade, who is a retired IAS officer from Maharashtra, said the Home Minister assured him the Government’s full support to her daughter Devyani. He said the Home Minister told him that the Government was with the family and Devyani has not done anything to be treated like that.
“What was done was absolutely atrocious and she was discharging Government duty,” Khobragade said. He said when Devyani was arrested she should have been treated with proper dignity. “It is not Devyani’s insult, but of the nation as she is representing the country. Devyani has been made a target, a scapegoat.... It is the outcome of tussle going on between the Ministry of
External Affairs and US State department for the last two years,” Khobragade claimed. The diplomatic row intensified on Tuesday following reports that the diplomat was reportedly strip-searched, confined with drug addicts after her detention and also subjected to DNA swabbing.
Earlier in the morning, Shinde cancelled his meeting with a senior US Congressional delegation ostensibly as a mark of protest against the treatment meted out to Devyani. His Ministry officials, however, attributed it to his preoccupation with the ongoing Parliament session.