Govt moves against Devyani Khobragade

New Delhi, December 20

Diplomat Devyani Khobragade has reacted to the action against her by the Ministry Of External Affairs saying she has not broken any service rules in talking to the media.

Speaking to a newspaper on Saturday after the MEA action, Khobragade said she has not violated any rules under the civil services act and that she was just clarifying her stand over the charge that her children were having illegal passports.

“My statements were within the ambit of the Section(9) of the Civil Services Rules of 1964,” she said.

Khobrade’s reaction came after the Ministry of External Affairs stripped her of her duties as director in the development partnership division of the MEA for giving a statement in the media. Devyani Khobragade was arrested and strip-searched in New York last December while serving as India’s deputy consul-general on charges of mistreating her servant.

She had denied the charge and subsequently returned to India, but the incident triggered fury in New Delhi and led to the resignation of then US ambassador Nancy Powell.

Khobragade has been removed from her current post in the foreign ministry for an unauthorised media interview and for not disclosing that her children held US passports, say reports.

“The reports are not incorrect. It is true that she has been placed on compulsory wait,” an official of the ministry said, adding that Khobragade now faces an administrative inquiry. — Agencies