New York: Washington had rejected the key demand of dropping the charges against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade and said, “We take law enforcement seriously.”
US had made it clear on Thursday they had no plans to drop the charge of visa fraud against India’s deputy consul general, Devyani Khobragade in New York to solve the situation.
State Department spokesperson Marie Harf told reporter that it was not State Department “to support or not support” the prosecution of Khobragade and “That’s decision for law enforcement and judicial process to make.”
She also said, “We certainly take these types of allegations very seriously though.” “So certainly, there’s no discussion like that going on. We just want the process to move forward.”
Harf claimed, “The State Department had not yet received an official request through proper channels for re-accreditation.”
But if and when a person’s “immunity changes because of a different diplomatic status, that immunity would start on the date it’s conferred,”
Harf also said that she was not aware of any request regards the allowance of Khobragade to leave New York for India.
Harf, while notifying that US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman made call to Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and said, “But what we’re focused on right now is working to move the relationship forward.”
“They had a good conversation. And also, there’s a process, right, in place right now through the judicial system, a legal process that we also would like to see play out.”
“And we’ll continue having conversations with the Indian government, certainly, as this process moves forward.”
However, John Kerry, Secretary of State had not contacted with Salman Khurshid, Indian External Affairs Minister Thursday and he had “no plans” to contact with him.
Harf said that the expression of “regret” was over the way the whole matter was handled.
She also claimed that the charges against Khobragade were a different matter and she also claimed, “We take law enforcement seriously.”
Bureau Report
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