NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Friday asked the United States to withdraw a diplomat from its embassy in New Delhi, a move that is a part of series of retaliatory measures by India against the United States over the arrest of its diplomats in New York.
“We called the US mission to withdraw an officer of similar rank of Devyani as reciprocal action,” a government official said, adding that the US diplomat was involved in the case relating to Devyani Khobragade.
The 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade was flying home on Friday from the United States after a deal in which she was indicted for visa fraud and lying about how much she paid her housekeeper, but allowed to leave because of diplomatic immunity.
The US State Department spokesman said that the charges against Khobragade will not be dropped and she will face them if she returns.
Khobragade, who was deputy consul-general in New York‚ was arrested on December 12 and charged with one count of visa fraud and another of making false statements about how much she paid her housekeeper. Her arrest and strip-search spurred outrage in India as New Delhi took a series of retaliatory measures against the United States including removing security barriers outside the US embassy in the capital.
