© Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily NewsDevyani Khobragade, left, leaves Manhattan Federal Court after her arrest Thursday for allegedly cheating her housekeeper and babysitter by paying her $3.31 an hour and lying on a visa application.
Devyani Khobragade thought she had found the right employee in a woman named Sangeeta Richard. U.S. labor rules required that the sitter be paid $9.75 an hour.
But authorities allege that Khobragade drew up two contracts - one with the proper amount and one with the actual amount paid (about $3.31 an hour for a 40-hour workweek, a wage that would often amount to much less because of longer hours worked).
Khobragade's arrest last week on visa fraud charges and her subsequent treatment by U.S. authorities have touched off a major diplomatic row with the United States, India's ally, culminating with the New Delhi government demanding an unconditional apology and curtailing U.S. diplomats' privileges and security measures.
In a mark of how serious the dispute has become, Secretary of State John F. Kerry called India's national security adviser Wednesday and "expressed his regret" over the incident, according to the State Department.
And Indian officials announced they were transferring Khobragade to their country's mission to the United Nations. The move, if approved, would give her full immunity from other charges going forward.
Khobragade, 39, India's deputy consul general in New York, was dropping off one of her daughters at school last Thursday when agents of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service descended, handcuffing her.
Later, she was strip-searched and - she claims - cavity-searched by U.S. marshals; the Marshals Service is charged with housing federal prisoners. Experts said that was unheard-of treatment for a diplomat arrested by a friendly country. (A spokeswoman for the agency says that Khobragade was merely strip-searched.)
U.S. officials have maintained that as a consulate employee, Khobragade was entitled only to limited immunity, for acts related to her consular duties, rather than the full immunity accorded to other kinds of diplomats.
If found guilty of visa fraud and making false statements on a visa application, she could face 10 years in prison.
The case has struck a nerve in deeply traditional India, where a woman's modesty is still considered sacrosanct. India's national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, has called Khobragade's treatment "despicable and barbaric."
Kerry, in his call with Menon, said he "empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India," a State Department statement said.
The secretary "understands very deeply the importance of enforcing our laws and protecting victims, and, like all officials in positions of responsibility inside the U.S. government, expects that laws will be followed by everyone here in our country," it said. "It is also particularly important to Secretary Kerry that foreign diplomats serving in the United States are accorded respect and dignity just as we expect our own diplomats should receive overseas."
At a briefing at the State Department, deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf would not characterize the conversation as an apology. She said the tone was "positive."
On Tuesday, India revoked the identity cards of U.S. consular personnel and their families, rescinded airport passes, froze embassy imports of liquor and other goods, and began investigating salaries paid to Indian staff members at U.S. consulates, as well as those teaching at U.S. schools in the country.
The outcry continued Wednesday. Politicians complained on the floor of Parliament. The hashtag "#devyanihumiliated" trended on Twitter. A Times of India headline read "Strip Search finds India's Spine." Small anti-American protests flared in New Delhi and a few other cities.
Karl F. Inderfurth, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs who is at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the timing of the incident contributed to the strong reaction.
"India is immersed right now in a societal debate on the proper treatment - respective, not degrading - of women within its own society. That's another reason why this is striking an Indian nerve," he said in an e-mail.
Khobragade's attorney, Daniel N. Arshack, said Wednesday that the diplomat actually had submitted one contract to the U.S. government, listing the proper salary for her domestic help, and had drawn up another with the woman, to deduct money from her pay to be sent to support her family in India.
Khobragade's relationship with the babysitter grew troubled about six months after she started work. Arshack said that the babysitter asked whether she could work part time for other clients, and then stole items and later disappeared in June .
On Wednesday, both Arshack and Indian officials said Khobragade, who had been deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women's affairs since November 2012, had been transferred to the country's permanent mission to the United Nations.
Harf said the State Department has not received any notice about transferring Khobragade's diplomatic assignment.
Such a request would be made to the United Nations, which would then refer it to the State Department for review, Harf said.
The U.S. government has the authority to turn down such requests on national security grounds, officials said.
Arshack said the move would provide retroactive diplomatic immunity, although U.S. officials said that did not appear to be the case.
"We fully expect her diplomatic status will be respected by the United States, and this will get resolved in a political and diplomatic way," Arshack said.
Khobragade has remained publicly silent. But she wrote a note this week thanking her Indian diplomatic colleagues for their support.
"I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, hold up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity," she wrote in the e-mail, made available to The Washington Post.
Gearan reported from Washington.
All this misery could have been avoided by just paying the hired help a legal wage...Probably paid by the Indian government anyway. Of course, the rich do not maintain their status by reaching out to the poor.