Bharara said the State Department, “whose views must be given great weight”, has “unequivocally concluded” that Khobragade did not employ her domestic worker Sangeeta Richard in her capacity as Deputy Consul General and so does not enjoy immunity from prosecution for the “crimes” for which she was arrested in December.
The State Department also determined that her immunity in connection with her short-lived stint at the Indian mission to the U.N. from January 8 to January 9 before she was asked to leave the U.S. “is no bar to prosecution”.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade was arrested on visa fraud charges, strip-searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of U.S. diplomats among other steps.
She was indicted on visa fraud and making false statements by a U.S. grand jury. She returned to India after she was asked to leave the U.S. by the State Department.
“From the time of her departure from the U.S. on January 9, through the present, Khobragade enjoys residual diplomatic immunity only for acts she performed in the exercise of her functions as a member of the mission from January 8 to January 9.
“The acts giving rise to the charges in the indictment were not performed in Khobragade's exercise of her functions as a member of the mission both because they were performed well before her assignment to the Permanent Mission of India to the UN and because the hiring of Richard was not an official act,” Bharara said, quoting the declaration.
“The defendant currently enjoys no diplomatic status and at the time of her arrest the defendant's position as a consular official gave her immunity from prosecution for official acts only.
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