Hopes of an India-US diplomatic thaw have quickly dissipated with the US authorities re-indicting Devyani Khobragade within two days of a New York judge dismissing her earlier indictment for alleged visa fraud on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
While India on Saturday slammed the re-filing of criminal charges against Khobragade in another New York court, going so far as to warn it could impact efforts to build the India-US strategic partnership, the US government stoutly defended its chosen course.
It’s not just US Attorney Preet Bharara’s doing as the State Department admitted that it, too, had filed court papers opposing Khobragade’s bid to get the charges dismissed, asserting that she enjoyed full diplomatic immunity for just one day in January.
Voicing India’s disappointment of filing a second indictment after the first one was dismissed along an arrest warrant, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi: “This was an unnecessary step. Any measures consequent to this decision in the US, will unfortunately impact upon efforts on both sides to build the India-US strategic partnership, to which both sides are committed.”
“We reiterate that the case has no merit. Therefore this second indictment has no impact on our stated position,” he said, stressing: “Now that Dr Khobragade has returned to India, the court in the US has no jurisdiction in India over her. Government will, therefore, no longer engage on this case in the US’ legal system.”
In New York, Attorney Bharara’s office filed the second indictment in the court of US District Judge William Pauley.
“A grand jury has returned a true bill today on a two-count criminal indictment of Devyani Khobragade,” Bharara’s office said in an announcement on Friday, adding that a warrant of arrest has also been issued against her.
Stating that Khobragade is “believed” to be in India, Bharara said in a letter to Judge Pauley: “The (US) Government will alert the Court immediately upon the defendant’s arrest so that an appearance before Your Honor may be scheduled. At present, the defendant is believed to be in India.”
The new 21-page indictment is essentially a restatement of the charges set out in the dismissed indictment against Khobragade. It accuses her of visa fraud and making false statements to US authorities “to facilitate her exploitative employment of a household employee (Sangeeta Richard) who was grossly underpaid and overworked”.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf, briefing reporters, said the dismissal of the first indictment by District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin had come as a “surprise” to the department.
Harf, when quizzed at length on the “surprise” aspect, disclosed that the State Department had filed court papers opposing Khobragade’s bid to get the charges dismissed and stands by it.
“We were surprised by the dismissal of the indictment. We were, of course, aware of the motion to dismiss the charges. We had submitted to the court a brief containing our legal position on immunity,” she said.
Harf said the State Department’s position was that Khobragade “had full immunity for a very brief period, a day”, adding this was between the time Khobragade was accredited to the UN mission (January 8) and the time she left the country (January 9).