John Kerry calls Indian official to express 'regret' about diplomat's cavity search when she was arrested in NY for paying housekeeper $3-an-hour 'slave wage'

Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was arrested as she dropped her daughter off at school last week

She has now been transferred to UN to give her diplomatic immunity



Her housekeeper claims she was being paid less than $3.31 an hour and forced to work well over 40 hours a week



The diplomat was forced to undergo a cavity search before being put in a cell with sex workers and drug addicts

She told Indian authorities in an email that she 'broke down' several times during the search



It has been alleged that the Indian embassy had been warned in September about the allegations against the diplomat and that action would be taken



U.S. has now said it will 'review the procedures' carried out upon her arrest and investigate whether 'courtesies' were extended

Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was given preferential treatment when arrested, according to the US Attorney

John Kerry has telephoned an official in India to 'express' regret over the way the arrest of a female diplomat who was subjected to a cavity search was handled in an effort to repair relations between their two countries.

In a highly personal call the U.S. Secretary of State empathized with case of Devyani Khobragade, 39, who was handcuffed outside her child's school saying that 'as a father of two daughters about the same age' as her own he regrets the way it was handled.

Devyani Khobragade, 39, was arrested at the gates of the Upper East Side school in New York last Thursday and charged with submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Manhattan housekeeper, whom she is accused of keeping as a 'virtual slave'. Prosecutors say the maid received less than $3 per hour for her work.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf described Kerry's call to Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon - who condemned the diplomat's treatment as 'despicable and barbaric' - in a written statement.

She said: '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.

'In his conversation with National Security Adviser 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.'

Ms Khobragade, the Deputy Consul General for Political, Economic, Commercial and Women’s affairs was handcuffed, strip-searched, swabbed for DNA and held in in a cell with sex workers and drug addicts before posting $250,000 bail has caused a diplomatic furor.

She has now been transferred to her country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations – ensuring her complete immunity from US prosecution.

In an email to thank her colleagues for their support, Ms Khobragade said she was treated like a common criminal.

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Devyani Khobragade, pictured on December 8 during a fundraiser at Stony Brook University in Long Island, was arrested outside her daughter's school several days later



She wrote: 'I am so grateful for all the outpouring of unequivocal support and backing that has been available to me from the fraternity. I take comfort in the confidence that this invaluable support will also be translated into strong and swift action, to ensure the safety of me and my children, as also to preserve the dignity of our service which is unquestionably under siege. DIPLOMAT HASTILY MOVED TO INDIAN PERMANENT MISSION IN NEW YORK FOR 'FULL IMMUNITY'

India is attempting to ensure Devyani Khobragade has full diplomatic immunity from prosecution by transferring her to their Permanent Mission. The move effectively affords her complete immunity from further legal action because the Mission is technically Indian soil and the U.S. have no authority on it. As Deputy Consul General, Ms Khobragade enjoyed ‘consular immunity’ which is limited and related to her official duties. Under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular officials can still be arrested for acts committed outside on official job functions.

Her transfer to India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York – effective immediate – was intended to keep her ‘safe’ while her government seeks to bring her back to India.

If she were to be convicted of the crime she is accused of, Khobragade would face a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration.

Diplomatic immunity is a policy held between governments that ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws, although they can still be extradited. It was developed to allow for the maintenance of government relations, including during periods of difficulties and even armed conflict.

' While I was going through it, although I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity,' she wrote.

'I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride. ' I feel I can continue to do so thanks to this strong and prolific support.I cannot say more now but will later, I did feel the deep need to thank you all so much.'

Protests have broken out in India over her treatment, where there is fury that she was subjected to the humiliation of a cavity search. The U.S. Marshals Service has described her treatment as "standard arrestee intake procedures." However, it has now emerged that the authorities are reviewing their intake procedures. U.S. assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai-Biswal told the Times of India: 'We understand this is a very sensitive issue for many in India and accordingly we are looking at our own intake procedures surrounding the arrest to ensure all appropriate procedures were followed and every opportunity for courtesies were extended.' Desai-Biswal also disclosed to the paper that the Indian embassy had been warned in September that there were suspicions the diplomat has been underpaying minimum wage and that action could be imminent.

As Deputy Consul General, Ms Khobragade enjoyed ‘consular immunity’ which is limited and related to her official duties. Under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular officals can still be arrested for acts committed outside on official job functions.

Her transfer to India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York – effective immediate – has been widely reported in India as a bid to ensure her full immunity while her government seeks to bring her back to India. If she were to be convicted of the crime she is accused of, Khobragade would face a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration. A possible complication could arise from the fact that she would have to apply for a fresh diplomatic card through the UN Secretariat – a process that must ultimately go for clearance to the US State Department. Activists burn posters of President Obama and U.S. flags during a demonstration to protest against the alleged mistreatment of New York-based Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in Bhopal, India The move emerged amid reports that India has also sought salary details of all Indian staff employed in US consulates, including those working as domestic help at the homes of US diplomats in India.

JOHN KERRY 'VOICES REGRET' OVER DIPLOMAT ARREST DURING CALL TO INDIAN OFFICIAL

Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned a top Indian official to voice regret about the handling of Devyani Khobragade’s arrest. The U.S. State Department said on today that Kerry spoke to National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and said he hoped that the incident would not harm US-India relations. '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 his conversation with National Security Adviser 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.' The White House has also tried to smooth over the frictions caused by the incident. Spokesman Jay Carney said that Washington understood why the issue was such a sensitive one in India, where there has been public outrage. However, he added that the incident did not reflect the broad and healthy cooperation between the two countries. 'The United States and India enjoy a broad and deep friendship and this isolated episode is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful ties that we share,' Carney said. 'We understand that this is a sensitive issue for many in India, and we are looking into the intake procedures surrounding this arrest, to ensure that all standard procedures were followed and that every opportunity for courtesy was extended.'

It is a provocative move, considering the huge and obvious disparity in the average wages enjoyed by Americans versus Indians. Ms Khobragade has been widely criticized for allegedly paying her housekeeper a salary of $3.31 an hour, which at just $600 a month is well below minimum wage. However, the Indian Diplomatic Corps has come to her defense, claiming she is only paid $6,500 a month herself and could not afford to pay a housekeeper the U.S. minimum wage of $4,500 a month. The arrest has led to a wave of outrage in India. India has threatened to downgrade privileges of American diplomats there and the country also announced a freeze on duty-free alcohol, in the escalating row with the U.S., a country it considers a close friend. Police also removed the traffic barricades near the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, a demand by the Indian government in retaliation for Khobragade's treatment, PTI reported. The barriers were a safety measure. 'We got orders to remove the concrete barriers,' said Amardeep Sehgal, station house officer of the Chanakyapuri police station, the one nearest the embassy. 'They were obstructing traffic on the road.' He refused to say who had given the orders. Ms Khobragade, who studied medicine, is a star diplomat with very high connections. Her father is a powerful Indian government official and her uncle once served as India’s deputy consul general in New York. Her father, Uttam Khobragade, told the TimesNow TV news channel on Tuesday that his daughter's treatment was 'absolutely obnoxious'. 'As a father I feel hurt, our entire family is traumatized,' he said. Khobragade’s husband, a philosophy professor, is believed to have stayed in India while she took up the post in New York as deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women’s affairs with their two children, aged six and three.

Demonstrators shout slogans near the U.S. Embassy in New Dehli (left) and Hyderabad (right) on Wednesday as the diplomatic row continued



She has been painted as a fighter for women’s rights. ‘I come from a family where our parents always encouraged that women must be economically independent,’ she told The Indian Panorama newspaper in April.

A police car sits in front of India's United Nations permanent mission in New York today following the furor over the diplomat's arrest

Prosecutors in New York say Khobragade, 39, claimed she paid her Indian maid $4,500 per month but actually paid her less than the U.S. minimum wage.

In order for diplomats and consular officers to get a visa for their personal employees, known as an A-3 visa, they must show proof that the applicant will receive a fair wage, comparable to employment in the U.S., U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement last week.

Khobragade has pleaded not guilty but if convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration.

Her case quickly became a major story in India, with politicians urging diplomatic retaliation and TV news channels showing the woman in a series of smiling family photos.

The case touches on a string of issues that strike deeply in India, where the fear of public humiliation resonates strongly and heavy-handed treatment by the police is normally reserved for the poor.

For an educated, middle-class woman to face public arrest and a strip search is almost unimaginable, except in the most brutal crimes.

Far less serious protocol complaints have become big issues in the past. Standard security checks in the U.S. regularly are front-page news here when they involve visiting Indian dignitaries, who are largely exempt from friskings while at home.

India's former speaker of Parliament, Somnath Chatterjee, once refused to attend an international meeting in Australia when he wasn't given a guarantee that he would not have to pass through security.

Chatterjee said even the possibility of a security screening was 'an affront to India'.

The treatment and pay of household staff, meanwhile, is largely seen as a family issue, off-limits to the law.

The fallout from the arrest was growing. On Tuesday, Indian political leaders from both the ruling party and the opposition refused to meet with the U.S. congressional delegation in New Delhi. The Indian government said it was 'shocked and appalled at the manner in which the diplomat had been humiliated' in the U.S.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh summoned U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell to register a complaint.

In Washington, U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Tuesday that the department's diplomatic security team followed standard procedures during the arrest. After her arrest, Khobragade was handed over to U.S. marshals for intake and processing, she said.

Devyani Khobragade has been transferred from the Indian Consul to the country's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York in a bid to protect her from prosecution

Indian police remove barricades erected as a safety measure outside the U.S. Embassy in New Dehli as the diplomatic row escalated

Demonstrators in Bhopal, India burn pictures of President Obama as they protest the arrest of Devyani Khobragade

Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said there were 'larger issues' involved in the case, but did not elaborate.

'We will deal with them in good time,' he said.

'It is no longer about an individual, it is about our sense of self as a nation and our place in the world,' Khurshid told parliament, whose usually fractious members showed rare unity on the issue ahead of elections due to be held by May next year.

Khurshid said work conditions of Indians employed in U.S. consulates in major Indian cities would be revised, to root out any violations of labor laws.

Treading carefully: U.S. assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai-Biswal (pictured left) said they were investigating the treatment of a foreign diplomat while Secretary of State John Kerry called National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon (right) over the incident



Secretary of State John Kerry, pictured today in the Philippines, personally phoned India's National Security Adviser to protect the countries' friendship

Several politicians argue that India provides too many unilateral perks to U.S. diplomatic staff. Khurshid reined in some of these on Wednesday, saying passes giving consulate staff access to airport lounges had to turned in by Thursday.

Supporters of a right-wing opposition party held a small protest close to the embassy in Delhi on Wednesday.



Around 30 demonstrators, some wearing makeshift Obama masks and sarongs made from the American flag, demanded an apology.

Devyani Khobragade's alleged mistreatment in the U.S. has sparked protests across her native India

Angry protesters gathered in Hyderabad, India over the treatment of a female diplomat who was allegedly strip-searched by NYPD officers

'It was very good that the government removed the barriers yesterday. Until the U.S.A. says sorry, we should not give any security at all to the Americans,' said protester Gaurav Khattar, 33.

The U.S. State Department said it had told the Indian government it expects New Delhi to protect its embassy and stressed it did not want the incident with the Indian diplomat to hurt ties.

The embassy did not respond to repeated requests for information about what action would be taken to replace the barriers. The compound has several other layers of security and is protected by a high wall.

The Consulate General of India building on East 64th Street in Manhattan - where deputy consul general Devyani Khobragade was based in the U.S.

Uttam Khobragade, the father of the diplomat, attends a government meeting in New Delhi, following his daughter's arrest