January 16
A senior diplomat at the Indian High Commission in London Anil Verma, accused of assaulting his wife, is being called back to India after the External Affairs Ministry took serious note of the charges against him. “He is being called back to the headquarters,”official sources said.

The sources added that since Verma was an IAS officer, he would appear before the Department of Personnel and his parent cadre (West Bengal) to present his case. Verma, who is minister (economic) at the High Commission, allegedly attacked his wife, Paromita, after a heated argument last month. Paromita was an employee of the Indian Railways and was in the UK on study leave. “If she wishes to come back, she is free to do so. However, whether she comes back or not is entirely between her and her parent ministry,” the sources added.

The claims that Paromita was “screaming and covered in blood” after she was allegedly punched in the face by her diplomat husband has severely embarrassed the Indian High Commission.

Wife beating is reprehensible in any culture, but a scandal of this proportion, which dents the image of the country and its diplomats, has never before been played out in front of the public.

The tragic case of Paromita Verma takes up an entire page of the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which says she has gone into hiding while the British Government considers her request for humanitarian asylum.

What has been said on her behalf is consistent with the unofficial insights offered by some High Commission insiders who say the true story of the Verma household is much worse than what has hitherto been published.

A picture of Paromita dressed in a quilted overcoat and clutching two Marks and Spencer shopping bags is published along with the report. When the story first started to unfold a week ago, a spokeswoman for the High Commission told The Tribune, “It has been brought to the notice of the High Commission and it is expected it will be sorted out mutually between husband and wife.”

After Sunday’s revelations, a High Commission spokesman said, “We have put out an official comment and I don’t have anything further to add at this stage.”

Meanwhile, Paromita and the couple’s five-year-old son are understood to have left the family home in the plush London suburb of Golders Green, where the locks have been changed, while the British authorities consider her application to stay on indefinitely in the UK.

A close family friend, thought to be a relative, is quoted as telling how Verma flew into a rage last month because of a Christmas tree that had been put up in the house. “He stormed up the stairs to grab the tree and throw it out, but Paromita followed and tried to stop him because their son had been decorating it”, the friend is quoted as saying.

“He suddenly turned round and punched her full in the face, very hard. Paromita almost fell down the stairs but grabbed on to the banister to steady herself. She was screaming and blood was flowing from her nose like a tap.”

Soon afterwards neighbours called the police and an ambulance. Paromita subsequently made a statement to the police, prompting moves to arrest her husband who has claimed diplomatic immunity.

Verma is strictly speaking not a professional diplomat from the Indian Foreign Service, but an IAS officer seconded to the High Commission to look after trade and economic relations.

The Mail on Sunday has also been told how Paromita was allegedly “berated” by Deputy High Commissioner Rajesh Prasad who told her she was being sent back to India, even if it meant being put on a flight against her will.

It was after this implied threat that she went into hiding, pending her appeal to stay in the UK.