A Saudi diplomat accused of holding captive, beating and repeatedly raping two Nepali women hired as domestic servants in his luxury apartment near New Delhi has left India under diplomatic immunity.



Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup issued a statement on Wednesday night saying the diplomat “who is allegedly accused of abusing two Nepali maids has left India”. The diplomat was protected by the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, Swarup said, giving no further details.

Indian police raided the diplomat’s residence in the satellite town of Gurgaon last weekend and told reporters they found two Nepali women employed as maids. The police later opened an inquiry into allegations made by the two women that they had been held against their will, denied food and water, beaten and repeatedly raped by up to seven men at a time over a period of at least 15 days.

The Saudi Arabian embassy issued a statement describing the allegations as “completely baseless” said it had lodged an official complaint about the raid on the apartment, which it said was a breach of diplomatic privilege.

Police investigations stalled when officers were unable to question the diplomat, who was reported to have moved with his family into the Saudi Arabian embassy in Delhi due to his diplomatic status. Police officers had sought the Indian foreign ministry’s help obtaining access to the accused man and senior Indian diplomats asked the Saudi envoy to seek his cooperation in the inquiry.

Under the Vienna convention, which entered into force in 1964, diplomats and their family members enjoy a high degree of legal protection in countries where they are posted and cannot be arrested or detained for any crime.

Workers with an NGO told the Guardian both women came from remote rural parts of Nepal and were sent to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants by human traffickers before returning to Delhi with their new employer. Such networks send thousands of women to India from Nepal, and hundreds at least to the Gulf, every year.

Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake in April that destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and livelihoods and left many destitute, increasing the vulnerability of millions of women to such gangs. One of the two women was reported to have lost her home in the disaster.

Reports of medical examinations of the victims leaked to local media appeared to support the women’s description of repeated abuse.

The women, aged 30 and 50, were rescued on 7 September from the 10th and 12th floor of an apartment block after a third, recently hired maid raised the alarm.

“She [the recently hired maid] realised what was going on and we shared our ordeal with her. She was smart … she threatened them and left a few days later and she helped us get out,” one alleged victim told the AFP news agency after arriving in Kathmandu last week.

Police in Nepal have made several arrests and say they are trying to trace a key agent who may have trafficked hundreds of women from the poor south Asian state to India and the Gulf.

The incident prompted women’s rights activists to protest outside the Saudi embassy in New Delhi, demanding the diplomat’s arrest. Indian campaigners said allowing the accused diplomat to depart amounted to deserting the women.

The allegations and police inquiry posed a diplomatic dilemma for India. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, will soon visit Saudi Arabia, which supplies significant quantities of oil to the emerging economic power and also hosts around two million Indian workers. However there are deep concerns in Delhi about China’s growing influence in Nepal, and increasing India’s influence in the neighbouring Himalayan state is a key foreign policy objective.