India has conveyed its concern to the United States over the way an Indian diplomat’s daughter was arrested and treated by American authorities on a false charge.
Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar said, “We have conveyed our concern to the US government about the way Krittika Biswas, daughter of the vice-counsel at the Indian Consulate in Manhattan, Debashish Biswas, was treated by American authorities. The case is obviously a matter of concern to all of us.” Ms Shankar was talking to reporters after meeting the Union home minister P. Chidambaram here.
She further said, “We have expressed our anguish and taken up the issue strongly with the US. When she was apprehended, we worked through the night as we got the information in the night. We woke up the US officials in the night and got her released the next day.” Now she has sought permission to file a case against the US authorities and she is fighting it, she added.
Meanwhile, diplomatic immunity does not apply to family members of consular officers, US state department has said, a day after Ms Biswas filed a law suit against New York City alleging that she was falsely arrested and suspended for sending obscene emails to teachers at her Queens High School.
“The Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs provides that consular officers are not liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a felony where a court warrant is required. But that provision does not apply to family members,” the state departments spokesman, Mark Toner, told reporters at his daily news conference here on Wednesday.
Ms Biswas, 18, also claimed that she was ill-treated in the prison. She Biswas alleged that she was not allowed to use the bathroom for a long-time when she was in custody.