New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday withdrew invite to the US envoy to protest Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade arrest. The invite was for the US envoy to attend party prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Mumbai on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, the US state department said that any diplomatic immunity Devyani receives after her UN posting won't have retrospective effect, the Ministry of External Affairs sources have played it down.
MEA sources say India was not worried about Devyani's diplomatic status. Sources said they are aware that past cases will not go away with change in diplomatic status, but immunity from future fresh charges if any, summons or arrest pending outcome of trial can be attained. Sources said with the UN immunity, the final judgement in the case can be delivered but not implemented.
MEA sources added that retrieving Devyani's passport from the US court is not a concern at all. Sources said India is well within its rights to issue fresh passport to its national if she has to travel back or be shifted out to some post.
This came after a US official said that the transfer of diplomat Devyani to India's Permanent Mission at the United Nations would grant her full-diplomatic immunity temporarily and protect her from any arrest in the US, but the visa fraud case against her would go uninterrupted.
"For anyone, it would apply for the length of time that they have that diplomatic status. But it doesn't retroactively wipe out past discretions," the State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki had said on Friday.
"Receiving diplomatic immunity does not nullify any previously existing criminal charges. Those remain on the books. Nor does obtaining diplomatic immunity protect the diplomat from prosecution indefinitely. It relates to the status of a diplomat's current status for the length of the time of that status," Psaki said.
Diplomatic immunity means, among other things, that a foreign diplomat is not subject to criminal jurisdiction in the United States for the time they are a diplomat, for the time they have that immunity, she said.
She added that,"when immunity is conferred, it does not retroactively take effect at a previous point in time but relates solely to the diplomat's current status".
"So, I think some of the confusion here has been if there is a change in status, does that mean that there is a clean slate from past charges. There's not," Psaki said.
After her arrest on visa fraud charges in New York last week, Khobragade was transfered this week from the Indian consulate to its Permanent Mission at the UN.
She also said that the US is yet to get an official request "through the proper channels for accreditation" and hinted the full diplomatic immunity would remain till the time she is posted at the UN.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade was arrested and then handed over to the US Marshals Service (USMS). She has since been posted to India's Permanent Mission in New York.
Khobragade was taken into custody as she was dropping her daughter to school before being released on a $ 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
She could face a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration if convicted.
(With additional information from PTI)
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