Indian diplomat's 'strip-search' sparks outrage.

According to several media reports, Dr Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was subjected to a strip search and kept in a cell with drug addicts after her arrest in New York last week.

The issue now threatens to snowball into a major diplomatic face-off between India and the United States. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar cancelled a meeting in Delhi with a visiting US Congressional delegation on Monday.National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon also cancelled his meeting.

Dr Khobragade, 39, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody last week on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on charges that she underpaid her maid and presented false documents to the US about her maid's salary.

Dr Khobragade was later released on a $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.