New Dehli, December 31- The United States will not withdraw the visa fraud case against former Indian Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade, sources said on Monday.
January 13 has reportedly been fixed as the deadline for her indictment, for which the US is said to be gathering more evidence. However, the sources conceded that if Khobragade gets UN immunity, she cannot be prosecuted or brought to court for the period of immunity.
But, if she returns to India and then comes back to the US, the charges will stand and she could face arrest, they added. The sources said an apology from the US was out of the question, adding that everything in the case ” was done by the book”.
The US Diplomatic Security Service had on December 12 arrested Khobragade for allegedly underpaying her domestic help visà – vis American law, and misrepresenting the pay information in visa documents. She was released on bail the same day, but the arrest – and her claim that she was subjected to a strip- and cavity- search – kicked up a diplomatic row between India and the US. A fallout of the stand- off has been India bringing the lot of Indian employees at the US Embassy and diplomatic missions in India, and the human resource policies they follow, under intense scrutiny.
Employees working with American missions in India have revealed how many of them earn far less than what their American counterparts do for doing the same job and working similar hours.
In fact, in the case of some semiskilled staff, the wages are below those prescribed under India’s Minimum Wages Act. Sample this: an employee of the US Embassy sent in his salary slip to this newspaper.
As a visa officer, the employee said he earned Rs.17,000 per month, a far cry from the Rs.1.55 lakh ($ 2,500) his American counterpart made exclusive of allowances and a free house. In India, US diplomats even get a 20 per cent hardship allowance, which goes up to 25 per cent for their consulate in Kolkata.
One security guard gets Rs.8,000 per month for an eight- hour daily shift, which is way below what’s specified in the Act. US mission officials claimed off the record that Indians know they have to work at lower wages as local employees.
-Indiatoday
