The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

LETTERS

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Khobragade had full diplomatic immunity at time of arrest
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 26
In a new twist to the Devyani Khobragade case, New Delhi has claimed that the Indian diplomat was accredited as an "Adviser to the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations" by the world body on August 26, 2013.

"Her arrest, therefore, on December 12 was contrary to her status on that date,'' sources said today, suggesting that she enjoyed full diplomatic immunity at the time of her arrest. Her status as an Adviser was valid until December 13, 2013.

Sources pointed out that the "Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations" Article 4 Section 11A specifies "immunities from personal arrest or detention and from the seizure of their personal baggage" of all representatives of members to the UN.

Section 16 of the same article specifies that the expression "Representative" shall be deemed to include all delegates, deputy delegates, advisors, technical Experts and secretaries of delegations.

The diplomat was arrested on December 12 on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid Sangeeta Richards.

It is also learnt that Manhattan's India-born prosecutor Preet Bharara's office goofed up in the paperwork for arresting Devyani. A US federal agent is said to have simply made an error in reading the form in support of the visa application for the domestic worker. The agent mistakenly though the 4500 dollars salary entered on the form was what Devyani intended to pay her maid. It was rather the base salary of the diplomat and was mentioned in the form only to reflect the fact that she was drawing sufficient salary to pay to her maid the latter's salary.

Screenshot shows US officials misread info

A screenshot of the visa application submitted for Devyani's maid Sangeeta Richard indicates that US authorities apparently misinterpreted information regarding the wage to be paid to the domestic help

A State Department investigator seemingly erred by considering Khobragade's salary of $ 4,500 as that of her maid

This discrepancy led to the arrest of Khobragade on charges of visa fraud in New York on Dec 12