Unfazed by the outrage over the arrest and subsequent treatment of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the India-born US prosecutor Preet Bharara on Thursday defended the action against her and confirmed that her maid's family has been "evacuated" from India.
Acknowledging that maid Sangeeta Richard's family has been brought to the US, Bharara said a legal process was started in India to "silence her and attempts were made to compel her to return to India".
A 1999 batch IFS officer, Khobragade, India's Deputy Consul General in New York, was arrested on December 12 on visa fraud charges by the State Department's diplomatic security bureau, and then handed over to the US Marshals Service (USMS).
In her complaint, the maid accused the diplomat of violating US laws by underpaying her and forcing her to work for 19 hours a day. Khobragade was taken into custody as she was dropping her daughter to school before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court. In a statement at US, Bharara said the victim's family was confronted in numerous ways regarding this case.
"Some focus should perhaps be put on why it was necessary to evacuate the family and what actions were taken in India vis-a-vis them. This office and the Justice Department are compelled to make sure that the victims, witnesses and their families are safe and secure while cases are pending."
"This Office's sole motivation in this case, as in all cases, is to uphold the rule of law, protect victims, and hold accountable anyone who breaks the law no matter what their societal status and no matter how powerful, rich or connected they are," he said.
In Washington, the Indian Embassy in a statement alleged that the US government did not respond to its series of requests of tracing the Indian maid, who was missing since June this year, and preventing her from blackmailing Khobragade.
Bharara said the entire process lasted approximately two hours and since it was cold outside, the agents let her make those calls from their car and "even brought her coffee and offered to get her food." The prosecutor conceded that the diplomat was strip-searched.
"It is true that she was fully searched by a female Deputy Marshal -- in a private setting - when she was brought into the US Marshals' custody, but this is standard practise for every defendant, rich or poor, American or not, in order to make sure that no prisoner keeps anything on his person that could harm anyone, including himself," he said.
He said there has been "misinformation and factual inaccuracy" in the reporting on the Khobragade case which is "creating an inflammatory atmosphere." "There has been much misinformation and factual inaccuracy in the reporting on the charges against Khobragade. It is important to correct these inaccuracies because they are misleading people and creating an inflammatory atmosphere on an unfounded basis," he said.
Accusing Khobragade of fraud, Bharara said: "Not only did she try to evade the law, but as further alleged, she caused the victim and her spouse to attest to false documents and be a part of her scheme to lie to US government officials." "So it is alleged not merely that she sought to evade the law, but that she affirmatively created false documents and went ahead with lying to the US government about what she was doing."
"One wonders whether any government would not take action regarding false documents being submitted to it in order to bring immigrants into the country," he said. "One wonders even more pointedly whether any government would not take action regarding that alleged conduct where the purpose of the scheme was to unfairly treat a domestic worker in ways that violate the law."
"And one wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?" He said his office is in charge of prosecution, not the arrest or custody of a defendant and so questions regarding Khobragade's arrest by State Department agents "may be better referred to other agencies".
Bharara added that as the alleged conduct of Khobragade makes clear, "there can be no plausible claim that this case was somehow unexpected or an injustice." He said while the law is clearly set forth on the State Department website, there have been other public cases in the United States involving other countries, and some involving India, where the mistreatment of domestic workers by diplomats or consular officers was charged criminally.
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