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NEW DELHI — India’s foreign minister demanded Thursday that the United States drop the case against a diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched in New York City, saying she was the victim of a blackmail attempt by her housekeeper.
A lawyer for the housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, denied the claim.
The case has sparked a diplomatic furor between the United States and India, which is incensed over what its officials describe as degrading treatment of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed it strip-searched Khobragade after her arrest, but denied her claim that she underwent a cavity search.
Khobragade, 39, is accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Richard, an Indian national. According to prosecutors, Khobragade claimed she paid Richard $4,500 a month, but actually paid her around $3 per hour.
Richard’s lawyer said she worked from morning until late at night, seven days week, for less than $3 an hour taking care of the two children of a diplomat. Unable to get a better deal, she made sure the children were cared for one day and walked out.
From that moment on, Richard relied on the kindness of strangers within the Indian community in New York City, and even was cared for at one point by a Sikh temple. She eventually connected with the nonprofit Safe Horizon, which has an anti-trafficking program.
“She was basically just trying to find her way. She was left with the clothes on her back, with very little money,” attorney Dana Sussman said.
The housekeeper and Sussman eventually went to the State Department with the allegations.
Richard’s and Khobragade’s accounts of the events that led to the diplomat’s arrest and touched off a diplomatic furor between the United States and India differ greatly.
The case has sparked widespread outrage in India, where the idea of an educated, middle-class woman facing a strip-search is almost unheard of, except in the most extraordinary crimes. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed regret over the incident, even as the U.S. attorney in New York said she was treated well and questioned why there was more sympathy for the diplomat than the housekeeper.
State Department officials have declined to provide details about the case, citing law enforcement restrictions that prevent them from discussing it. They say they are still trying to assess what occurred.
On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid took issue with the entire premise of the case and accused the housekeeper of blackmail. He told reporters that the housekeeper had threatened over the summer to go to the police unless Khobragade arranged a new passport for her, along with a work visa and a large sum of money.
“We need to remember the simple fact that there is only one victim in this case,” Khurshid said. “That victim is Devyani Khobragade — a serving Indian diplomat on mission in the United States.”
Khurshid did not say how much money the housekeeper allegedly demanded. But two top Indian officials said she asked for $10,000 in the presence of an immigration lawyer and two other witnesses. Both officials have close knowledge of the case, but spoke on condition that their names not be published because of the sensitivity of the case.
Khurshid also said the U.S. attorney had ignored the fact that a legal case was already under way in India in the dispute between the housekeeper and the diplomat. Khobragade notified authorities in New York and Delhi over the summer that she was being blackmailed, and the Delhi police launched a case against the woman, Indian officials said.
The case has chilled U.S.-Indian relations, and India has revoked privileges for U.S. diplomats in protest. India revoked diplomat ID cards that brought certain privileges as retaliation, demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in U.S. Embassy households, and withdrawing import licenses that allowed the commissary at the U.S. Embassy to import alcohol and food.
Sussman and others in the U.S. say the outrage is misdirected.
“It’s quite overwhelming for her,” Sussman said of her client. “I think she’s been frustrated with the response that somehow has been on the victimization of the defendant.”
The New York Police Department does not have a record of Devyani complaining of being blackmailed, though it’s possible she could have reported it to a different law enforcement agency.
However, Devyani reported the housekeeper missing in June. Investigators with the NYPD determined the housekeeper had not gone missing, but had taken her belongings and left, the report shows. The case was closed.
A lawyer for the housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, denied the claim.
The case has sparked a diplomatic furor between the United States and India, which is incensed over what its officials describe as degrading treatment of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed it strip-searched Khobragade after her arrest, but denied her claim that she underwent a cavity search.
Khobragade, 39, is accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Richard, an Indian national. According to prosecutors, Khobragade claimed she paid Richard $4,500 a month, but actually paid her around $3 per hour.
Richard’s lawyer said she worked from morning until late at night, seven days week, for less than $3 an hour taking care of the two children of a diplomat. Unable to get a better deal, she made sure the children were cared for one day and walked out.
From that moment on, Richard relied on the kindness of strangers within the Indian community in New York City, and even was cared for at one point by a Sikh temple. She eventually connected with the nonprofit Safe Horizon, which has an anti-trafficking program.
“She was basically just trying to find her way. She was left with the clothes on her back, with very little money,” attorney Dana Sussman said.
The housekeeper and Sussman eventually went to the State Department with the allegations.
Richard’s and Khobragade’s accounts of the events that led to the diplomat’s arrest and touched off a diplomatic furor between the United States and India differ greatly.
The case has sparked widespread outrage in India, where the idea of an educated, middle-class woman facing a strip-search is almost unheard of, except in the most extraordinary crimes. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed regret over the incident, even as the U.S. attorney in New York said she was treated well and questioned why there was more sympathy for the diplomat than the housekeeper.
State Department officials have declined to provide details about the case, citing law enforcement restrictions that prevent them from discussing it. They say they are still trying to assess what occurred.
On Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid took issue with the entire premise of the case and accused the housekeeper of blackmail. He told reporters that the housekeeper had threatened over the summer to go to the police unless Khobragade arranged a new passport for her, along with a work visa and a large sum of money.
“We need to remember the simple fact that there is only one victim in this case,” Khurshid said. “That victim is Devyani Khobragade — a serving Indian diplomat on mission in the United States.”
Khurshid did not say how much money the housekeeper allegedly demanded. But two top Indian officials said she asked for $10,000 in the presence of an immigration lawyer and two other witnesses. Both officials have close knowledge of the case, but spoke on condition that their names not be published because of the sensitivity of the case.
Khurshid also said the U.S. attorney had ignored the fact that a legal case was already under way in India in the dispute between the housekeeper and the diplomat. Khobragade notified authorities in New York and Delhi over the summer that she was being blackmailed, and the Delhi police launched a case against the woman, Indian officials said.
The case has chilled U.S.-Indian relations, and India has revoked privileges for U.S. diplomats in protest. India revoked diplomat ID cards that brought certain privileges as retaliation, demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in U.S. Embassy households, and withdrawing import licenses that allowed the commissary at the U.S. Embassy to import alcohol and food.
Sussman and others in the U.S. say the outrage is misdirected.
“It’s quite overwhelming for her,” Sussman said of her client. “I think she’s been frustrated with the response that somehow has been on the victimization of the defendant.”
The New York Police Department does not have a record of Devyani complaining of being blackmailed, though it’s possible she could have reported it to a different law enforcement agency.
However, Devyani reported the housekeeper missing in June. Investigators with the NYPD determined the housekeeper had not gone missing, but had taken her belongings and left, the report shows. The case was closed.
