Indicted for visa fraud, Devyani leaves US for India

Senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade has been indicted for visa fraud and making false statements and has left the country for India. She was asked to leave after India refused to waive her diplomatic immunity. The charges against 39-year-old Khobragade will remain and she will have to face trial, if she returns to the US without diplomatic immunity, US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a letter to District Judge Shira Scheindlin. Bharara said the grand jury has indicted the diplomat on two counts of visa fraud and making false statements in connection with the visa application of her domestic help Sangeeta Richard. [caption id=“attachment_1332559” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Khobragade: AP[/caption] “There will not need to be an arraignment on the Indictment scheduled at this time. We understand that the defendant was very recently accorded diplomatic immunity status,” Bharara said in his letter. “Therefore, the charges will remain pending until such time as she can be brought to Court to face the charges, either through a waiver of immunity or the defendant?s return to the United States in a non-immune status. The time between now and the time that she is able to be brought before the Court is excluded automatically under the Speedy Trial Act, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 3161(h)(3)(A), which provides for the exclusion of any period of delay resulting from the unavailability of the defendant,” he said. India meanwhile refused the United States’ request to waive the diplomatic immunity of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade after the US accepted her request for UN accreditation, sources said. “We have accepted the Indians request to accredit (Devyanai Khobragade to the United Nations),” a US government official told PTI. He acknowledged that not accepting to this request of UN accreditation would have been very difficult for the United States. “It is important to note that it would be almost without precedent to deny such a request except in the event of national security risks including espionage,” the official said. Requesting anonymity as the official is not allowed to speak to the media on this sensitive issue, the official said once the UN accreditation was granted that gave her the full diplomatic immunity, the US immediately requested India to waive this immunity so that she can be tried in a US court. As expected, India denied the request. “The US requested waiver of immunity (of Devyani Khobragade).India denied that request,” the official said. “We then requested her departure, as per the standard procedure and the charges remain in place,” the official added. When contacted, Khobragade told PTI, “I will show my immunity to the court. The court will see that I have diplomatic immunity. Only then will I leave the US.” A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, was arrested on December 12 on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid. She was released on a USD 250,000 bond. The diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats. “The Government respectfully writes to advise the Court that earlier today, the grand jury voted on and returned the enclosed Indictment charging Devyani Khobragade, the defendant, in two counts with visa fraud and making false statements in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1546, 1001, and 2,” Bharara said. “In this case, the defendant is unavailable because her ‘whereabouts are known but [her] presence for trial cannot be obtained by due diligence or [she] resists appearing at or being returned for trial’,” he said. Bharara made it clear that Khobragade will be prosecuted if she returns to the US without diplomatic immunity. “We will alert the Court promptly if we learn that the defendant returns to the United States in a non-immune capacity, at which time the Government will proceed to prosecute this case and prove the charges in the Indictment,” he added. After the row broke out, Khobragade was transferred to India’s Permanent Mission to the UN. Following her arrest, her passport was kept in court’s custody. PTI