Deputy consul-general Devyani Khobragade was arrested last week for alleged visa fraud while she had gone to drop her daughters at school. Khobragade (39 years) was arrested and handcuffed in public, but this ugly humiliation's cruelest part was that on the part of US Marshals that they not only stripped her but also allegedly forced to undergo repeated body cavity searches, a treatment usually reserved for drug suspects,before she was freed on a $250,000 bail bond.
The 1999-batch IFS officer Khobragade narrated this ordeal on her in an email to her colleagues,“I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, holed up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity,” .
Rubbing salt on all above , an article on New York Times, alongside reporting the proceedings and the diplomatic war between US and India, suggested that the country is outraging over the 'disrobing' of a 'middle class' Indian woman where as domestic helps are treated 'abominably' in India.
Khobragade's absconding maid Sangeeta Richard's family flew to New York on 10 December, just two days before the diplomat's arrest has now convinced India to accuse US of indulging in immigration fraud,after it was revealed that Sangeeta Richard's husband and son were given visa to flew to New York just two days before Devyani Khobdagade was arrested.
Thus it is proved that the US has knowingly facilitated immigration fraud by Richards. This is now open to all that, even when long back in June, shortly after Ms. Richard walked out of Khobdagade's home, the representative of Indian government had filed a missing complaint with the US . However, the US police refused to take any action on the case and the US authorities dismissed several requests made by the Indian government to help find Richard. (some local lawyer blackmailed the diplomat to settle the visa case of Ms. Richards, by paying huge money)
The official report has also confirmed this and said, "India had asked the American Embassy for help to find Ms Richard way back on July 5, said the sources. Ms Richard, who remained in hiding, reportedly met an immigration lawyer in the US in September and asked for 10,000 dollars and a passport to stay on in the country."
When series of action on behalf of the US has confirmed India's accusation that US has helped Richard pull off an immigration fraud, now INDIA HONEST presents it utmost regret, and asks the Indian Government to unearth the conspiracy behind the whole authority, and force diplomatically the highest US authorities to accept the criminality in this nasty episode and punish the guilty immediately.