New Delhi: Senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was today indicted for visa fraud and making false statements by a grand jury in the US, returned here tonight amidst an emotional reunion with her family.
The United Airlines flight carrying Khobragade landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 9.40 pm and she came out of the terminal at 10.40 pm, her father Uttam Khobragade said.
“She is not depressed. She is fine”, Devyani's father told PTI as she received her 39-year-old daughter at the airport along with officials of External Affairs Ministry.
Uttam Khobragade said he was “grateful to everyone for supporting her daughter”.
A federal grand grand jury in Manhattan held that the charges against Devyani Khboragade, former Indian Deputy Consul General in New York, will remain and she will have to face trial if she returns to the US without diplomatic immunity, US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a letter to District Judge Shira Scheindlin.
The arrest of Khobragade, mother of two, and her subsequent strip-search in New York has sparked an outrage in India.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, was arrested on December 12 on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid. She was released on a USD 250,000 bond.
The diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats.
