INDIA rejected an American offer to press a lesser criminal charge of misdemeanour against its diplomat Devyani Khobragade and insisted that all criminal charges be dropped, according to the sources.
This resulted in a stalemate for several days – as officials and lawyers from both the countries held a series of meetings in Washington, New York and New Delhi – after which both the countries agreed on the course of action seen in Washington on Thursday (January 9), as a result of which Khobragade flew back home late Friday (January 10) night, sources said.
“While the US was not willing to go below misdemeanour, the Indian side was not willing to consider this as a criminal act at any point of time,” sources familiar with the conversation said.
“We tried everything in the book to see if our bottom lines met and our bottom lines did not meet,” sources said.
Requesting anonymity, sources said the US started with felony charges and were willing to consider bringing down those charges, but they still insisted that it would be a misdemeanour.
“And a misdemeanour is still a criminal count. For us the idea that an Indian diplomat faces criminal charges was out of question,” sources said.
So after a number of conversations, India and the American interlocutors reached a position where the US bottom line was misdemeanour, which is still criminal and India insisting that it can’t accept a criminal charge against its own diplomat with immunity.
“Once we reached that impasse, the only option left for us was to pursue the route of getting the visa for her as a diplomat of the UN,” sources said, adding that by January 8, it became clear that there was no meeting point through the legal route.
It is at this point that India pressed the Americans to accept Khobragade’s credentials to the United Nations, which would give her the necessary diplomatic immunity.
The United States, which had slowed down the process on her UN accreditation request, acceded to the Indian request.
In fact, it had no other option left.
As a result, late night on January 8, the US sent a letter to Khobragade accepting her UN credentials.
Well aware that having granted her immunity, the US would have problems with the country’s laws, on the morning of January 9 (local US time), the Ministry of External Affairs transferred her from the Permanent Mission of India to the UN.
The Americans said given the situation in which she is, it is better that she leave, sources said.
On the night of January 8, the US sent a letter to the Indian Government to waive the immunity of Khobragade.
On the morning of January 9, India informed the US about its decision not to waive off her immunity as requested.
Soon thereafter, the US asked her to leave the country.
