US says Visa fraud case against diplomat Devyani Khobragade would remain
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- Category: Delhi political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:52
US media dubs India's reaction as overwrought, misplaced:
11:45 am: US media deplores India's 'misplaced rage'
Largely taking the moral high ground in this bilateral diplomatic row, the US media has dubbed India's reaction to its diplomat's arrest as "overwrought" and "misplaced", saying Devyani Khobragade was on the wrong side of the law, though at least one commentator has said that US owes India an apology.
Calling it "India's Misplaced Outrage" a leading newspaper said: "India's overwrought reaction to the arrest" of Devyani Khobragade, its deputy consul general in New York, "is unworthy of a democratic government. 10:15 am: Still no apology or dropping of charges
A week into their diplomatic spat, the US responded with a softened tone to India's reconciliatory stress on preserving their "valuable" ties, but made no move to drop the charges against an Indian diplomat or offer an apology.
President Barack Obama left for Hawaii for his annual holiday without referencing the spat with India at his hour-long yearend press conference, an indication perhaps that the issue was not on his table and was not deemed serious enough to merit a comment from the White House.
9:00 am: Processing request to accredit Devyani to Permanent Mission: UN
The UN on Saturday said it has received official notification from India to register diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested on visa fraud charges, as a member of the country's Permanent Mission and the request will be processed according to "standard procedures".
"The United Nations has received notification to register Devyani Khobragade as a member of the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations. The United Nations is processing this request per its standard procedures," Acting Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq told a news agency.
8:15 am: Need to preserve partnership with India: US
Trying to bring the temperatures down in their diplomatic spat, the US Friday welcomed India's reconciliatory stress on the importance of preserving their "valuable" ties as they try to work out a solution.
The US and India were engaged in conversations at various levels to find a way forward, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters saying it agreed with the Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's views on how important and valuable the relationship is.
"Those are our views as well," she said when asked about Khurshid's comments on the importance of preserving the "valuable relation in which enormous investments have been made".
However, on the issue of dropping the charges of visa fraud against Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, Psaki said "it's a legal case" and the State Department had "no jurisdiction" in the legal process.
On the issue of diplomatic immunity for Khobragade in her new job at India's Permanent Mission at the UN in New York, she said the concept of "retroactive" immunity does not work as it applies only to a diplomat's current status.
7:00 am: UN posting gives Devyani temporary immunity: US
The transfer of diplomat Devyani Khobragade to India's Permanent Mission at the United Nations would grant her full-diplomatic immunity temporarily and protect her from any arrest in the US, but the visa fraud case against her would go uninterrupted, US official said.
"For anyone, it would apply for the length of time that they have that diplomatic status. But it doesn't retroactively wipe out past discretions," the State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki said yesterday.
"Receiving diplomatic immunity does not nullify any previously existing criminal charges. Those remain on the books. Nor does obtaining diplomatic immunity protect the diplomat from prosecution indefinitely. It relates to the status of a diplomat's current status for the length of the time of that status," Psaki said.
Diplomatic immunity means, among other things, that a foreign diplomat is not subject to criminal jurisdiction in the United States for the time they are a diplomat, for the time they have that immunity, she said.
6:00 am: John Kerry plans to call Khurshid
Secretary of State John Kerry plans to call his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid soon as the ties between two sides are too important to be derailed by an "isolated incident" of the arrest of a diplomat, the US State Department said on Friday.
The US has not received any request from India on the transfer of 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
This is expected to provide Khobragade with the necessary diplomatic immunity even as the court cases would continue in New York.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade was arrested on December 12 on visa fraud charges as she was dropping her daughter to school and released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.'zeenews'