DHAKA: India has summoned US Ambassador Nancy Powell to lodge a strong protest against what it has called the "unacceptable treatment" of its high-ranking diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and handcuffed in public in New York on Thursday for an alleged visa fraud.


The Indian foreign ministry said "We are shocked and appalled at what the US did. India is forcefully taking up with the US the treatment of the arrested diplomat. It is not acceptable".

Ms Khobragade, Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate in New York, had been accused of lying on the visa application for an Indian national who worked for her for less than four dollars an hour.

She was reportedly arrested on the street while she was dropping her daughter to school. She was later released on a $250,000 bail.

She was arrested on the orders of Indian-born Preet Bharara, Manhattan`s top federal prosecutor, who said Ms Khobragade had presented false documents for the woman who worked as a babysitter and housekeeper at her home from November to June, and lied about her wages.

India has asked the US to resolve the matter with "sensitivity", taking into account Ms Khobragade`s diplomatic status.

Source: TOI

BDST: 1927 HRS, DEC 13, 2013
Edited by:Morshed Jahan Mithun, Newsroom Editor