Toronto, March 15- The legal reprieve Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade got from the United States on Wednesday proved short-lived.
A federal grand jury in New York on Friday returned a fresh indictment against her on two counts – visa fraud and making false statements in connection with the visa application of her former domestic help, Sangeeta Richard.
On Wednesday, Judge Shira Scheindlin had granted Khobragade’s motion to dismiss the earlier indictment based on her argument that she had full diplomatic immunity when she was first charged on January 9.
But the ruling did not challenge the underlying criminal charges and left the door open for a fresh indictment.
Mail Today had reported that a spokesman for Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, had signalled the likelihood of a new indictment.
“There is currently no bar to a new indictment against her for her alleged criminal conduct, and we intend to proceed accordingly,” the spokesman had said.
On Friday, Bharara’s office confirmed the fresh indictment was identical to the previous one. It will stay in force – which means it can be used to prosecute Khobragade if she returns to the US without full diplomatic immunity. A US official familiar with the case noted that Bharara had made it clear even with the earlier indictment that his office would seek to prosecute the case if Khobragade ever travelled to the US without immunity.
Additionally, Khobragade’s lawyer in New York, Daniel Arshack, had said his client could not travel to the US even in the absence of a new indictment unless the State Department, which had asked her to leave the country amid a raging diplomatic row between India and the US over the case, lifted its ban on her presence in the US. A State Department spokesperson had expressed ” surprise” over Wednesday’s dismissal of the first indictment against Khobragade.
Arshack, who on Wednesday told Mail Today that any move by Bharara to seek a new indictment would be “ill advised” and that he would raise ” other legal issues” if Khobragade were to be indicted again, declined to react to the new indictment until the time of going to print.
Khobragade was arrested in New York on December 12 last year and released on a $ 250,000- bond later that day. Her arrest and subsequent strip search while in custody had provoked protest in India.
As Khobragade was posted at the Indian consulate in New York and had limited consular immunity at the time of her arrest, the Indian government moved her to India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in order to provide her with full diplomatic immunity. After India declined to waive her newly acquired diplomatic immunity in order to let the case against her proceed, the US State Department asked for her immediate departure from the country. Khobragade arrived in India on January 9.
-Indiatoday
