First hint of a major turnaround by the US in the arrest of Khobragade.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: In the first major hint of a turnaround by the United States in the arrest and humiliation heaped on Dr. Devyani Khobragade, the Deputy Consul General of the Indian Consulate in New York, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has in a conversation with India’s National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, said that he regretted the strip search of Khobragade following her arrest on charges of visa fraud last Thursday, in Manhattan.
The State Department released a statement on the conversation Kerry had with Menon.
“As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the Secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms. Khobragade’s arrest,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.
“In his conversation with National Security Advisor (Shivshankar) Menon, he expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India,” Harf added.
Menon had been one of the first top officials in India to publicly denounce the humiliation of Khobragade who was strip searched, cavity searched, had a DNA swab taken, and then jailed with criminals, after she was arrested publicly on the streets of Manhattan.
Menon had also refused to meet a visiting US bipartisan delegation comprising of some members of the US House of Representatives, to protest against the arrest of Khobragade.
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