Devyani Khobragade’s arrest happened in spite of UN accreditation

NEW DELHI: Devyani Khobragade, the diplomat accused of visa fraud in the US, was also an adviser to India’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations at the time of her arrest earlier this month, a UN document showed on Thursday, a key revelation that could strengthen her position in the case.

The revelation is also surprising as it comes two weeks after the arrest and strip-search of Khobragade in New York, where she was India’s deputy consul general. Consular staff don’t get immunity from prosecution, the reason cited by US authorities for the diplomat’s arrest, but a position at the UN Mission could give it.

The finding questions the very basis of her arrest, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials said, though they couldn’t explain how the ministry, the consulate and Khobragade herself missed such critical information.

MEA sources said Khobragade was accredited as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of India to the UN on August 26 and that the status is valid until December 31. ET has a copy of this accreditation.


Sources said she took this temporary accreditation because of a UN General Assembly meeting in September that was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Citing the Geneva Convention, a source at MEA’s headquarters in South Block said the “Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations” give diplomats accredited to it “immunities from personal arrest or detention and from the seizure of their personal baggage” under Article 4.

They would also get immunity from legal process of every kind “in respect of word spoken or written and all acts done by them in their capacity as representatives,” the source said. The same Article specifies that the expression “representative” shall be deemed to include all delegates, deputy delegates, advisers, technical experts and secretaries of delegations, the source said.

MEA sources, however, were not certain whether Khobragade cited her additional status as an adviser to the UN Mission while she was being arrested.

Diplomatic sources still expressed surprise over how the US State Department and Justice Department failed to notice this status of her while arresting Khobragade. They said the matter would be raised with American authorities and that their act would be questioned.

Echoing similar sentiments, former ambassador to India’s UN Per manent Mission Arundhuti Ghose told ET: “Firstly, Khobragade cannot be arrested based on her status as deputy consul general. The new revelation further bolsters her case. Secondly her treatment by the US marshals is totally unacceptable. While allegations of exploitation of domestic help can be probed, her arrest is not permitted under the Geneva Convention.”

The 39-year-old diplomat, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was arrested over allegations that she paid her domestic help Sangeeta Richard a fraction of American minimum wages and lied on the maid’s visa application.