India demands that US drop case against diplomat

Left party activists shout slogans during a protest against the alleged mistreatment of New York based Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, near the U.S Consulate in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013. AP

NEW DELHI — India’s foreign minister has demanded that the United States drop a case against an Indian diplomat who was strip-searched after being arrested in New York City.

Deyvani Khobragade was accused of paying her Indian housekeeper far less than she had claimed on a visa application.

An Indian official said Khobragade, a deputy consul general in New York, had accused the housekeeper of blackmailing her last summer.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters on Thursday that Khobragade should never have been arrested, and that the housekeeper should have been arrested instead.

The case has sparked a diplomatic furor between the United States and India, which is incensed over what it describes as degrading treatment of Khobragade.