US 'colluded' with domestic help to frame Devyani Khobragade

NEW DELHI: Even as information is awaited from the US embassy on the pay scales of local staff employed by US embassy and consulates, India on Saturday set up a working-level group to collate, assess and evaluate the information and monitor developments related to the Devyani Khobragade case.

Contrary to speculation, the government is showing no sign of softening its position over the Khobragade issue which threatens to mar relations with the US.

India continues to insist that the diplomat's domestic help, Sangeeta Richard, had conspired to exploit US immigration laws and that this was made possible with "active collusion" from the US embassy, state department and justice department.

New Delhi is still awaiting information about the salaries paid to the local staff. While the request was made more than a week ago, the Americans, however, continue to seek more time citing the absence of many officials because of Christmas vacations.

India is also looking at possible commercial facilities being run from within the US embassy compound that are open not only to non-US diplomats from third countries, but to Indians and non-diplomats as well.

The government is still smarting under the "evacuation" carried out by the US authorities of Sangeeta's family days ahead of the arrest of the diplomat. The manner in which the US acted, according to the government, suggests that the US believed the domestic help was a victim of trafficking facilitated by the India government and that even the Indian judiciary was not competent enough to handle the situation.

The role of the US embassy too has come under scrutiny. According to sources here, the US was fully aware that contractual arrangements reached with India Based Domestic Assistants (IBDA), in this case Sangeeta, by successive Indian diplomats posted in the US were intended to provide for domestic helpers on the basis of "deemed government employment, whereby US visas were issued to the IBDAs on official passport issued by Indian government in response to a diplomatic note seeking the visa".

"The US embassy was also aware that GOI paid for the air passages including home leave fares, provided comprehensive medical coverage that was exactly on par with the coverage provided to the Officer as well as lodging in diplomatic premises," said a source, adding that the Indian government made the mistake of believing that this awareness of the US embassy was shared with the state department. "Clearly the embassy misled the Indian foreign ministry," said the source.