Arrest, strip-search of Indian diplomat in New York triggers uproar

The prosecutor in the U.S. government's case against an Indian diplomat charged in New York with visa fraud related to her treatment of her housekeeper expressed dismay Wednesday over the direction the case has taken, CNN reported.

"There has been much misinformation and factual inaccuracy in the reporting on the charges against Devyani Khobragade," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara about India's 39-year-old deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women's affairs, who was arrested December 12 in New York by federal agents. "It is important to correct these inaccuracies because they are misleading people and creating an inflammatory atmosphere on an unfounded basis."

He was referring to reporting about Khobragade's arrest outside her daughter's school, her detention in a cell with other women and her having been subjected to a strip search -- all of which raised diplomatic hackles in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the diplomat's treatment "deplorable;" Indian National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon called it "barbaric," CNN sister network IBN reported.

Indian officials summoned U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell, took away U.S. diplomats' identification cards that gave them diplomatic benefits and removed security barriers outside the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

But Bharara said Khobragade's treatment was justified. He cited an 11-page complaint that alleged she had promised in the visa application under which her housekeeper moved from India to the United States to pay her at least $9.75 per hour, the minimum wage in New York, and to require that she work no more than 40 hours per week.

But the complaint alleges that Khobragade then had the housekeeper, who has been identified as Sangeeta Richard, sign a second contract, which paid her less than $3.31 per hour and required that she work much longer hours.

The second contract, which was not to be revealed to the U.S. government, "deleted the required language protecting the victim from other forms of exploitation and abuse" and also deleted language that said Khobragade agreed to abide by U.S. laws, he said.

Khobragade is charged with one count of visa fraud -- which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison -- and one count of making false statements -- which carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Khobragade's lawyer, Daniel Arshack, said the allegations were unsubstantiated. "When the facts are looked at, it's perfectly clear that Dr. Khobragade did nothing wrong," he told CNN's "Piers Morgan." "She paid her worker exactly what she was supposed to pay her and the government has simply made a whole series of spectacular blunders, which has enroiled (sic) them into quite a remarkable diplomatic kerfuffle."

He added that the housekeeper was paid "well above the minimum wage," and that his client had -- at the housekeeper's request -- sent a portion of that money to the housekeeper's husband each month in India. "The balance of her pay was paid to her in the United States -- all of it," he said.

Arshack accused the U.S. government of having treated his client "like an ordinary U.S. citizen charged with a crime. The fact is she isn't an ordinary U.S. citizen. She's a diplomat with immunity."