Indian Diplomat in Maid Case Agrees to Waive Indictment Deadline

Move allows defense, prosecutors and State Department officials more time to discuss her case

  • Share
  • Read Later
Muhammed Jaffer / SnapsIndia / Reuters

Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade attends a fundraising event in Long Island, N.Y., on Dec. 8, 2013

Updated on Jan. 7, 2014, at 3:55 a.m. E.T.

The spat between Washington and New Delhi over Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade could be temporarily eased, the Washington Post reports, with Khobragade instructing her attorney to waive a Jan. 13 deadline to indict her.

Khobragade is charged with submitting false visa documents for her maid and with underpaying the maid. As a defendant, Khobragade has the right to be indicted within 30 days of being arrested.

According to the Post, Daniel Arshack, Khobragade’s attorney, said that “the pressure of the impending deadline” had been “counterproductive to continued communications” with prosecutors.

The waiver also relieves pressure on the U.S. State Department, which, the Post reports, had been “at odds with federal prosecutors over the wisdom of the arrest.”

Indian authorities have said they are prepared to make public cases of tax and other legal violations by U.S. embassy staff in New Delhi if Khobragade’s case is not solved in a way they are satisfied with.

MORE: Devyani Khobragade Scandal: Why India Still Won’t Back Down

[Washington Post]

In a previous version, the article misstated that Devyani Khobragade was still India’s deputy consul general in New York. She was transferred to India’s U.N. Mission in December.