ATLANTA — An Alabama police officer has been indicted by a federal grand jury, accused of using unreasonable force against an unarmed Indian man during an episode in which the officer slammed the man to the ground while he was on an early-morning stroll through his family’s suburban neighborhood.

The Feb. 6 confrontation, which led to the partial paralysis of the man, Sureshbhai Patel, 57, has exported America’s national debate over the use of force by police officers as observers and news media in India expressed outrage over Mr. Patel’s treatment.

It has also been an embarrassment for Alabama. Eleven days after the encounter, Gov. Robert Bentley wrote the Indian consul general in Atlanta, expressing “deep regret” for the “unfortunate use of excessive force by the Madison Police Department.”

On Friday, the Justice Department announced that the officer, Eric Parker, 26, had been indicted late Thursday. The two-page indictment alleges that Officer Parker, in slamming Mr. Patel to the ground, deprived him of his constitutional right “to be free from unreasonable seizures, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by one acting under color of law.”