Indian diplomat re-indicted in US visa fraud case

NEW YORK: An Indian diplomat was re-indicted Friday on US visa fraud charges that touched off an international stir after she was arrested and strip-searched last year. The new indictment, filed Friday, essentially just reinstates the charges against the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, charges that now arrive with her out of the country. A judge had dismissed last year's virtually identical indictment Wednesday on diplomatic immunity grounds, but left a door open to federal prosecutors to revive the case and they suggested they would. Khobragade's lawyer, Daniel Arshack, had no immediate comment Friday. He said Wednesday that re-indicting his client ''might be viewed an aggressive act and one that (prosecutors) would be ill-advised to pursue.'' Khobragade is back in India, and it's unclear when, if ever, she might appear in court in New York again. Khobragade was a deputy consul general in New York when she was arrested in December near her children's Manhattan school. Prosecutors said she lied to the government to get her Indian housekeeper a work visa, claiming she was paying the maid $500 per month while actually paying her less than $3 per hour. She had pleaded not guilty while also arguing she was immune from prosecution. The arrest sparked an outcry in India, particularly because of the strip-search. The US Marshals said Khobragade was treated no differently than others who are arrested, and US Attorney Preet Bharara said she indeed was afforded courtesies most Americans wouldn't get, such as being allowed to make phone calls for two hours to arrange child care and sort out personal matters. Bharara, who is himself Indian-born, also said Khobragade wasn't handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children and was given coffee and offered food while detained. Still, many in India saw the arrest as deeply disrespectful. Indian officials also said the housekeeper had tried to blackmail the diplomat, which the woman's advocates disputed. The episode roiled US-Indian relations, with India taking such steps as removing concrete traffic barriers around the US Embassy and revoking diplomats' ID cards. After being indicted, Khobragade complied with a Department of State request to leave the US, and the Indian government then asked Washington to withdraw a diplomat from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. The US complied. The Indian consulate in New York did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. When Khobragade was arrested, US officials said her status as a consular officer provided immunity limited to acts performed in the exercise of official functions. She disagreed, and then, on the day before her Jan. 9 indictment, she got a new appointment that conferred wider immunity. US District Judge Shira Scheindlin decided in a ruling Wednesday that the later appointment gave Khobragade immunity when indicted and meant that indictment had to be dismissed, without settling the question of whether the alleged crimes would have been considered ''official acts'' covered by the earlier, more limited immunity. But the judge wrote that there was ''no bar to a new indictment against Khobragade,'' whose immunity ended when she left the country.