Devyani Issue & Indo-US Relation: Civil Services Mentor Magazine - February 2014

DEVYANI ISSUE & INDO-US RELATION

India’s deputy consul in New York, Devyani Khobragade was transferred to India’s Permanent Mission in United Nations in New York on 18 December 2013. This was done by India to boost her diplomatic immunity. Earlier, Devyani Khobragade was charged with criminal offences by US. Devyani, the IFS officer was transferred to the post of the deputy consul-general in New York. The Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations is located in New York. She was moved to UN because of the fear that she might be detained again, as she was arrested in the second week of December 2013 by US. She will have a complete diplomatic immunity as an official of UN, which was not available to her as an official consulate.

At present, India wants the US to apologize and drop the criminal charges against Devyani Khobragade and allow her to return home. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State on 18 December 2013 called to the National Security Adviser, Shivshankar Menon to express his regret over the episode.

Brief outline

Devyani Khobragade was arrested by US law enforcement agencies on Dec 12th, 2013 under charges of visa fraud and providing false statements to US authorities about the terms of employment of an Indian national to help her gain entry into the US as a domestic help. Devyani is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1999 batch who was working as a Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate General in New York. The manner of her arrest and the treatment meted out to her thereafter has generated much outrage in the Indian media, public and government.

Regarding the manner of her arrest, it has been alleged that she was publicly arrested just after she dropped off her daughters at their school in the morning at around 9:30am. According to Indian media, she was handcuffed and subjected to strip search and cavity search in the US law enforcement agency’s custody. She was also allegedly kept in prison along with drug criminals. She was released later in the day on a bail of 250000$.

The Indian government has asked the US to issue an unconditional apology for the treatment meted out to Khobragade and also demanded the withdrawal of case against her since in its view, the arrest is against the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

Details of the complaint

The complaint filed by the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) charges Devyani Khobragade on two accounts:

(1) Committing Visa fraud, wherein it is alleged that she stated in the visa application form of Sangeeta Richards that Richards would be paid a monthly salary of $4500, which was actually not paid to her

(2) Providing false statements to US State Department in the form of false employment contract between her and Richards In detail, the complaint states that in Oct 2012, Devyani Khobragade made a verbal deal with
Sangeeta Richards, the Indian citizen, that in Oct 2012, Devyani Khobragade made a verbal deal with Sangeeta Richards, the Indian citizen, to work for her in the USA as a nanny and a babysitter. In this deal, it was agreed that Sangeeta Richards would get a monthly pay of Rs. 30000 for her work.

Thereafter, as Richards did not know how to operate a computer and fill her visa application, Devyani helped her in filling the visa form in November. In this visa form, it is alleged in the complaint that Devyani specified the salary to be paid to Richards as $4500 per month, when in fact she actually paid her only Rs. 30000 per month.

They also signed an employment contract which had to be submitted to US State Department. However, in this employment contract, Devyani mentioned that Richards would get the minimum US wage of 9.75$ per hour and have to work a 40 hour week which translated to a pay of roughly 1500$ (Rs. 93,000) per month, as opposed to the Rs. 30,000 agreed in the verbal deal.

Then in yet another twist, it has been alleged that just before Richards was to leave for the US, Devyani signed a 2nd employment contract with Richards, which was outside the knowledge of US authorities, in which the monthly salary was mentioned as Rs 30000. After going to US, Richards continued to work until June 22nd 2013 when she suddenly left Devyani’s home and went missing. The complaint states that she had gone to an NGO to complain about the harsh working conditions she was subjected to, including working hours from 6am to 11pm every day except just 2 hours off on Sunday for going to Church, and being paid much less than the US minimum wages for the work. This NGO, along with other US humanitarian agencies complained to the US authorities, which built up the case against Devyani by collecting several evidences and finally filed the complaint against her which led to her arrest.

Defence by Devyani Khobragade

She has claimed that she has not violated any law of USA as regards the wages she was paying to Sangeeta Richards. On the first charge regarding visa fraud, she says that the complaint makes a wrong charge that she had mentioned 4500$ as the salary to be paid to Sangeeta in the visa form. Actually, the visa form had asked the salary of Sangeeta’s employer (Devyani) which was mentioned as 4500$. On the second charge regarding payment of less than minimum wages to Sangeeta, she dismisses this as a lie. According to Devyani, she paid Sangeeta the required minimum wage of 9.75$ per hour for a 40 hour work week, every month from Nov 22,
2012 to June 22, 2013 after which Sangeeta went missing. This roughly translated to 1560$ or Rs. 93000 per month.

However, this was not paid entirely to Sangeeta’s account in New York. Out of the 1560$, 560$ (Rs. 30000) were paid to Sangeeta’s account in India as decided by them in the contract signed earlier in India in November 2012. This was because Sangeeta herself had asked Devyani to transfer Rs. 30000 to her India account every month as her husband was unemployed at that time. Out of the remaining 1000$, about 375$ were deducted monthly from her salary to pay for her chargeable utilities, her cable TV, her non work related expenses, etc. The remaining 625$ were paid to Sangeeta in cash and the receipts of these cash payments were kept by Devyani. These receipts would be produced in court by Devyani as a part of her defence to prove her innocence.

Defence of US authorities against the objections raised by Indian government

(1) On the objection of Indian government that USA violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations which gives diplomatic immunity to Devyani Khobragade, US has claimed that Devyani enjoyed only “consular
immunity” which gives her protection from arrest related to her consular duties only and not related to crimes committed on US soil

(2) On allegations about the strip search, US has said that this is a standard procedure done on any arrested person in US, even if he/she is a diplomat

(3) The US has denied that Devyani was handcuffed or subjected to cavity search or made to spend time with drug addicts in prison

(4) All in all, USA has turned down demands of an apology and has made it clear that it will not drop the case Reaction of Indian Government to the arrest of Khobragade

(1) Several Indian politicians and legislators refused to meet the US Congressional delegation that was visiting India at the time of outrage following Khobragade’s arrest

(2) On Dec 17, 2013, the Delhi police removed security barricades surrounding US embassy in Delhi, citing obstruction to smooth flow of traffic as the reason

(3) Indian government blocked perks enjoyed by US embassy employees in India, such as import of food and alcohol at concessional rates

(4) Indian government has also asked all US consulates to submit the salary and wages of domestic helps, gardeners, and other staff employed by them to check for illegalities

Md. Irshad

<< Go Back To Magazine Articles Main Page

Civil Services Mentor
Magazine
Civil Services EXAM
Civil Services Preliminary
Civil Services Mains
UPSC