DHAKA: Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat at the centre of a bitter row with the United States, is anguished and at ‘immense stress’ over leaving behind her young family in New York, and has vowed to clear her name.

Khobragade was allowed to leave the United States on Friday after a month-long dispute over her arrest and strip-search on suspicion of visa fraud involving her domestic servant.

She was granted full diplomatic immunity and allowed to fly back to India, just hours after charges were filed in court alleging she lodged false documents to obtain a visa for her servant and then underpaid her.

Khobragade, 39, told a newspaper of her anguish at leaving behind her daughters, aged seven and four, in New York along with her husband, a US citizen, who works as an academic.

‘I wonder if I will be able to ever reunite with my family, my husband, my little kids. I miss them,’ Khobragade told The Sunday Express reports The Times of India.

‘What if my children choose to study and work in the US? What if I can never return to the US, which I cannot now. Does it mean we will never be able to live together as a family again?’ she said.

BDST: 1800 HRS, JAN 12, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor