New Delhi: Maintaining a tough stand against the United States of America over the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said that they must apologise as the action taken against her is totally unacceptable.
"India will not accept anything less than an apology. America should drop all charges. America should know that times have changed and India has changed," he said.
His statement comes after the US State Department on Friday refused to drop charges against Devyani adding that the case would proceed according to all necessary legal procedures.
"The US has taken steps to re-unite the alleged victim with her family. We are aware of existence of allegations that the family was intimidated in India, I can't confirm those but in general we take those allegations seriously," said US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf.
The US Marshals Service has denied having conducted a cavity search on Khobragade. The US Marshals in a statement said, "In reference to the question about the cavity search the answer is no. Khobragade was subject to the same search procedures as other arrestees held within the general prisoner population in the Southern District of New York which in this case was a strip-search."
On Thursday, the US distanced itself from the statement of US Attorney Preet Bharara, who is prosecuting the case. Preet Bharara had outrightly denied claims that Devyani Khobragade was mistreated, arrested in public and handcuffed.
Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman spoke to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on Thursday evening and distanced the US authorities from Bharara's statement.
Khobragade, a Deputy Consul General at the Indian consulate in New York was arrested for allegedly filing false immigration documents allowing her to bring her domestic help Sangeeta Richard over from India.
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