December 18, 2013
NEW DELHI: Even though the US government feigned ignorance, it may have been aware of the whereabouts of Sangeeta Richard, the maid of Indian deputy consul general in New York Devyani Khobragade who is at the centre of a diplomatic row.
December 18, 2013
NEW DELHI: Even though the US government feigned ignorance, it may have been aware of the whereabouts of Sangeeta Richard, the maid of Indian deputy consul general in New York Devyani Khobragade who is at the centre of a diplomatic row.
This Dec 8 photo shows Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general, during the India Studies Stony Brook University fund raiser event at Long Island, New York.
Indicative of this is that Sangeeta's father-in-law is believed to be working in the US embassy here.
Sources said the mother-in-law of the maid was also known to the American government as she had worked with a senior diplomat of the US embassy here.
Besides these, Sangeeta's husband Philip, a driver with Mozambique embassy here, was given visa to travel to the US easily and quickly.
Indian government wonders whether all the requirements for grant of visa to him were fulfilled, particularly those related to adequate salary and financial deposits in his bank account.
Interestingly, the husband along with two children travelled out of the country on December 10, two days ahead of Khobragade's arrest.
Philip was given a T-visa, which allows certain victims of human trafficking and immediate family members to remain and work temporarily in the United States if they agree to assist law enforcement in testifying against the perpetrators.
Officials in the government here wonder the husband's exit from India was facilitated deliberately before Khobragade's arrest to make him unreachable to the Indian authorities.
The US government has been telling India that it has no information about the maid, whose disappearance was reported months back by Khobragade to the New York police department.
External affairs minister Salman Khurshid today told Parliament that there was no action by the US authorities to the complaint lodged about the maid.
Courtesy: PTI
