'John Kerry was aware of Devyani Khobragarde's arrest'

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry, who today expressed regret over the arrest and strip- search of Devyani Khobragade, was aware of the senior Indian diplomat's arrest.

Khobragade, the 39-year-old Deputy Indian Consul General, was subjected to a humiliating strip search, was swabbed for DNA and was kept in a cell with drug addicts after her arrest in New York last week for alleged visa fraud.

"He (Kerry) was certainly aware, yes, absolutely. He's been kept up to speed on this case," the State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters soon after informing them that Kerry spoke over telephone to the National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.

"He (Kerry) certainly expressed regret about what happened with this case writ large, sort of how this has all played out," she said.

"I think part of it, of course, was focused on the fact that we don't believe that there should be steps taken in Delhi or elsewhere in India by the government to prohibit us from doing our work, to put restrictions on our work, some of the things we've talked about with the demarches.

"It was really about the whole situation, honestly, and focused on how we move forward," Harf said, giving a description of the telephonic call between the two leaders.

Harf said Kerry understands very deeply the importance of enforcing US laws and protecting victims and, like all officials in positions of responsibility inside the US government, expects that laws will be followed by everyone here in the US.

Besides Kerry, the Under Deputy Secretary of State for Political Affairs Windy Sherman spoke with the Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on the developments following the arrest of the Indian diplomat.

There was no explanation given as to why Kerry did not call his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid, the External Affairs Minister.

Harf described this as a "positive" conversation. "He expressed regret with what happened. As a father of two daughters about the same age, he empathises with the sensitivity, certainly. I'm not going to further parse what he said in a private conversation, but needless to say, it was a positive conversation and we're focused on moving the relationship forward," she said.

Harf said the US do not want the incident to negatively further impact the bilateral relationship.