US court indicts Devyani Khobragade in visa fraud case, orders to leave the country

mangaloretoday.com

New York, Jan 09: Diplomat Devyani Khobragade has been indicted in a visa fraud case by a US court. However, the prosecuters told the court that she cannot be tried due to the diplomatic immunity. As per reports, the court has asked the diplomat to leave the United States. This could be seen as a resolution of the diplomatic row between India and the US.

Devyani Khobragade was charged by a federal grand jury in Manhattan with visa fraud and making false statements in a case that has triggered an outcry in India. She’s accused of fraudulently obtaining a work visa for her New York City housekeeper.

 

The indictment said Khobragade had made or multiple false representations to US authorities, or caused them to be made, to obtain a visa for a personal domestic worker. She planned to bring to worker the United States in September 2012 when she worked at the Consulate General of India in New York, according to the indictment.

In a letter to the judge, prosecutors said there was no need for an arraignment because Khobragade had "very recently" been given diplomatic immunity status and left the United States on Thursday.

The letter said the charges will remain pending until she can be brought to court to face them, either through a waiver of immunity or her return to the US without immunity status.

"We will alert the court promptly if we learn that the defendant returns to the United States in a non-immune capacity, at which time the government will proceed to prosecute this case and prove the charges in the indictment,’’ the letter from the office of US attorney Preet Bharara said.

Khobragade’s attorney Daniel Arshack said in a statement on Thursday that Devyani Khobragade was at her New York City apartment. Shortly after he issued the statement, a spokesman for federal prosecutors said the State Department had told prosecutors that it had asked her to leave the country on Thursday afternoon.

Khobragade, 39, India’s deputy consul general in New York, has maintained her innocence to accusations that she claimed to pay her Indian maid $4,500 per month but actually gave her far less than the US minimum wage. Her arrest last month sparked outrage in India after revelations that she was strip-searched and thrown in a cell with other criminal defendants before being released on $250,000 bail.

Devyani Khobragade leaves for India

The diplomat has now left the United States and is on her way back to India.

With full diplomatic immunity the threat to Devyani of being arrested is now over even if she has been indicted. She will now not have to be present before the magistrate even if case is on. Moreover, as she has left the country (US) and if she is away from US without her physically present the case will not be able go on as its a criminal case.