Devyani case: US distances itself from Preet Bharara's statement

New Delhi: Sensing the delicacy of the Devyani Khobragade matter, the United States of America on Thursday 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.

Bharara, in fact, said that Devyani was accorded courtesies that are generally not given to most Americans. Bharara went to the extent of saying that she was even allowed to make personal phone calls before she was arrested and the arresting officers even offered to get her refreshments.

But Bharara maintained that the strip-search was standard operating procedure and that it was done by a female Deputy Marshal.

Meanwhile, India has stood firm and is demanding that US withdraw the case against its diplomat and issue an apology over the whole row.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid earlier reiterated that the case against the Indian diplomat in the US was a conspiracy. Speaking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Khurshid demanded that the case against Devyani be withdrawn.

Khurshid called the case unwarranted and said, "The Devyani case is unwanted. The first thing I want to do is to protect my diplomat. Whatever happened is unsatisfactory and extremely distressing."

This comes even after the US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed 'regret' over the treatment meted out to Devyani, but fell short of apologising for it. "Hope the incident would not damage the close relationship the US has with India," he had said in a call to India's National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday.

But even as the US government tries to mollify India on Devyani's humilitating ordeal, many questions remain about the state department's role:

US needs to answer on three important reactions by the US authorities in the case. They are:

Why didn't the US authorities respond to Indian requests in the matter since June?

Did the state department know about the impending arrest, even as top officials met with Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh in Washington?

And how could the US government collude in 'evacuating' the Richard family by giving them visas?