Devyani Khobragade re-indicted, India says ‘unnecessary step’
16 March 2014 6:32 AM IST
Two days after a New York judge dismissed the visa fraud case against Devyani Khobragade, India’s then consul general in New York whose 12 Dec arrest and strip search strained ties between the two countries, a US grand jury Friday again indicted her on the same criminal charges.
‘A grand jury has returned a true bill on Saturday a two-count criminal indictment of Devyani Khobragade,’ Bharara’s office said in an announcement Friday.
An arrest warrant was also issued after the indictment, according to Jerika Richardson, spokesperson for the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Khobragade faces one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, according to the indictment filed in a Manhattan federal court Friday. India Saturday said the second indictment of Khobragade in the US was an ‘unnecessary step’.
‘The second indictment of Devyani Khobragade is an unnecessary step. We are disappointed. We reiterate that the case has no merit,’ external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in a tweet.
‘India’s government will no longer engage on this case in the US legal system,’ he said. Khobragade, who according to the US had limited consular immunity, was reassigned by India to a UN job after her arrest.
But the US asked her to return to India 9 Jan after New Delhi refused to waive her then newly-acquired full diplomatic immunity. Her lawyer Daniel Arshack declined comment after the fresh indictment which effectively returns the case to where it was before Wednesday’s dismissal. ‘The government of India will respond in due course,’ he said.
‘A grand jury has returned a true bill on Saturday a two-count criminal indictment of Devyani Khobragade,’ Bharara’s office said in an announcement Friday.
An arrest warrant was also issued after the indictment, according to Jerika Richardson, spokesperson for the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Khobragade faces one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, according to the indictment filed in a Manhattan federal court Friday. India Saturday said the second indictment of Khobragade in the US was an ‘unnecessary step’.
‘The second indictment of Devyani Khobragade is an unnecessary step. We are disappointed. We reiterate that the case has no merit,’ external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in a tweet.
‘India’s government will no longer engage on this case in the US legal system,’ he said. Khobragade, who according to the US had limited consular immunity, was reassigned by India to a UN job after her arrest.
But the US asked her to return to India 9 Jan after New Delhi refused to waive her then newly-acquired full diplomatic immunity. Her lawyer Daniel Arshack declined comment after the fresh indictment which effectively returns the case to where it was before Wednesday’s dismissal. ‘The government of India will respond in due course,’ he said.
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