It is a point that has been made repeatedly on Indian television by Uttam Khobragade, father of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, but now its strong reiteration by her lawyer appears to be gaining traction in the US media: That the US federal agent handling the Khobragade case wrongly interpreted the diplomat’s salary to be that of her maid Sangeeta Richards, and thereby concluding that Richards had been grossly underpaid.
Defence lawyer Daniel Arshack, in comments to the media in New York on Tuesday, said that Mark Smith, the Diplomatic Security Services agent, had “erroneously and disastrously believed that the $4,500 per month salary entry on the form was (maid) Richards’ expected salary when, in fact, it was clearly a reporting of the base salary to be earned by the employer, Khobragade, in the US.”
“This case should never have been brought,” Arshack said, noting the “agent who processed the arrest and drew up the affidavit to support the charges in this case, simply made an error in reading the form”.
“Somebody who messes up on the paperwork and causes a terrible thing to occur is very, very serious,” he added. There was no immediate comment on this aspect either from the State Department or from the office of Preet Bharara, US Attorney for Southern District of New York.
Uttam Khobragade had gone virtually breathless making this very point on a host of Indian television channels over the past 10 days, but the American media is taking cognisance of this aspect only now with the defence lawyer raising it prominently in comments to US wire services.
In the meanwhile the US has said that the employment of domestic workers will now be on agenda for the bilateral talks with India with which it is in conversation to “determine the way forward” in resolving the 14-day-long diplomatic row.
Following Devyani's arrest and strip-search on December 12, the US authorities had charged her with visa fraud and making false statements about the wages she paid to Richard.
While the visa fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, it can be up to five years for making false statements.
Arshack said the DS-160 form that was submitted online called for employer Khobragade's salary, not that of the maid. He said Khobragade's salary needed to be listed on the form so that US embassy officials in India would know that she had sufficient income to be able to pay her maid $1,560 per month, or $9.75 per hour for a 40-hour workweek.
In court documents, US authorities asserted that Khobragade actually paid Richard just about $3.31 per hour. They have also spoken of a separate contract under which the diplomat had offered to pay the maid just about $500 per month.