<div>India said on Thursday (19 December) the case against its diplomat Devyani Khobragade, <br />arrested in New York on charges of visa fraud, should not be pursued and withdrawn by the US authorities.<br /><br />External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said he had received a call from US Secretary of State John Kerry last night but he was not available at that time.<br /><br />"I was not available when John Kerry called. We are trying to log a time for a call this evening. Kerry is in the Philippines and there is a huge time difference," he said.<br /><br />"I have sought details of what happened in the case of the diplomat," he said, asserting that the matter should not be pursued and be withdrawn.<br /><br />"Our relationship has a lot of investment, it is not an irreversible matter and we have to deal with it sensibly," the Minister said.<br /><br />A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade was arrested on December 12 on visa fraud charges as she was dropping her daughter to school and released on a $250,000 bond only after pleading not guilty in court.<br /><br />The ill-treatment of its diplomat evoked a sharp reaction from India which initiated a slew of steps to downgrade the privileges enjoyed by the US diplomats and their families including withdrawing airport passes and stopping import clearances. <br /><br />Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had yesterday described as "deplorable" the way the diplomat was treated in the US.<br /><br />She has now been transferred to the Indian Mission to the UN to give her fuller diplomatic immunity.<br /><br />In his first statement in Parliament on the issue, Khurshid had yesterday said that she was the victim of a "conspiracy" and that some people had "trapped" Khobragade, who was put through both strip and cavity searches, procedures normally used for criminals.<br /><br />He had also said that India will intervene "effectively and specifically" to ensure the return and restoration of dignity of its Deputy Consul General as it a matter of the country's prestige and honour.<br /><br />There is a strong demand that Khobragade should be released unconditionally and all the charges against her should be dropped.<br /><br />(Agencies)</div>
