India faces poser over claims diplomat raped domestics

NEW DELHI: India’s foreign ministry summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador over allegations that one of its officials repeatedly raped two Nepali domestic servants, sparking a diplomatic row ahead of a planned state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Saudi Arabia is pressing India to drop the case, while Nepal wants justice for its two citizens who say they were kidnapped, gang-raped and starved over several months at the diplomat’s home close to New Delhi.

India’s foreign ministry yesterday summoned ambassador Saud bin Mohammed Al-Saty to relay a request from police for co-operation while they investigate the case, spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The Saudi embassy said the allegations were false and that the police broke international conventions by raiding a diplomatic property. The embassy did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Modi is scheduled to make a rare visit by an Indian leader to Saudi Arabia later this year, part of a strategy of winning investment from cash-rich oil states and to expand cooperation in the energy sector.

He has also made improv- ing relations with Nepal one of his top priorities, as concerns grow over China’s influence in the Himalayan nation.

“India needs to carefully balance supporting the ongoing investigation to satisfy Nepal and the Indian public, while not alienating Saudi too much – it is not easy,” said the director of the South Asia Analysis Group, S Chandrasekharan.

Modi’s visit to Nepal in August last year, soon after coming to power, ranks as one of his early diplomatic successes.

Thousands of women from Nepal go to India and the Middle East to work as maids.

Police cannot immediately arrest diplomats because the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations gives them immunity from arrest, crimi- nal prosecution and civil lawsuits in the countries where they are posted.

Police said yesterday that they had sent the details of their investigation to the foreign ministry and had sought its advice on how to proceed.

Earlier, about 50 protesters gathered outside the Saudi embassy shouting slogans demanding justice for the women. – Reuters