Consular rowdeepens as no- one relents

Mumbai – US prosecutors are to press ahead with charging a senior Indian official whose arrest and strip- search over alleged visa fraud has plunged relations between Washington and Delhi into deep freeze.

Devyani Khobragade has been accused of lying on a visa application for her housekeeper, an Indian national who had travelled to New York to work for her.

US officials claim she was being paid less than £ 2 an hour – well below the legal minimum wage – and being forced to work hours per week.

The Indian Government reacted with fury after Khobragade was arrested and handcuffed in front of her children as she dropped them off at school in New York.

The US Ambassador to India tried to start the new year on a better footing after admitting that relations between the two countries had been ‘‘ jolted’’. Nancy Powell’s expression of ‘‘ regret’’ over the arrest mirrored an earlier attempt by US Secretary of State John Kerry to calm

more

than

40 tensions.

However, India appeared to be in no mood to back down from a series of retaliatory measures, including demanding an audit of how much US diplomats pay local staff in India.

A spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the government was awaiting further details that it had requested from the US Embassy regarding the salaries paid to Indians employed by US missions in India and by individual American diplomats.

‘‘ We are processing

a lot of

infor- mation and, make no mistake, we are serious about processing and pursuing this matter,’’ the spokesman said.

India claims that Khobragade, a 39- year- old consular official, should enjoy diplomatic immunity. It has demanded a full apology and that all charges against her be dropped.

It has withdrawn special privileges accorded to US diplomats in India, such as fast- track clearance at airports. It has also removed security barriers outside the American Embassy in Delhi.