How the US prosecutor couldn't get his way with Russian violations

December 19, 2013 12:39

'Only a few days before Devyani Khobragade's choreographed detention, New York's heady prosecutors drew up a litany of charges of medical- insurance fraud against 49 Russian diplomats to the tune of $1.5 million. These 49 Russians now figure in a criminal complaint unsealed in the same Manhattan court, where India's acting consul general was produced for a $250,000 bail hearing last week. Of these, 11 Russian diplomats continue to work at the Russian consulate in New York or at Moscow's permanent mission to the United Nations in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan,' writes KP Nayar in The Telegraph, Kolkata.

But Preet Bharara, the celebrated Indian-American prosecutor, could do little, Nayar says.

'When Bharara's men set out in quest of the alleged offenders, with handcuffs in their pockets, they were promptly restrained by the US state department, according to authoritative sources who spoke to this writer. The state department told Bharara's office that all the 11 serving Russian diplomats on US soil had diplomatic immunity and could not be arrested,' writes Nayar.

'In Khobragade's case, the same state department insisted that she does not enjoy immunity except in the discharge of her official duties. There is a clear double standard here. That is because the Americans fear Russia. They have no such worries about India,' he concludes.

Read KP Nayar's damning piece here.

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