Indian diplomat Devyani’s father Uttam Khobragade, a retired IAS officer, on Thursday threatened to launch an indefinite fast-unto-death demanding justice for her.
Speaking to mediapersons at his residence in Mumbai, Khobragade said: “I am going to fast-unto-death. There is no point living in this world if I am not able to safeguard her honour.”
He also took strong exception to US Attorney Preet Bharara’s statement that Devyani’s former house-keeper Sangeeta Richard’s husband was flown out of the country as “legal process was started in India against the victim, attempting to silence her”. Appalled by Bharara’s attempt to doubt the credibility of Indian courts, Khobragade appealed to the Supreme Court to invoke contempt of court proceedings against the attorney.
“Look at their arrogance, Bharara has accused the Indian courts of being unjust, unfair and a tool in the hands of a government and it is not capable of protecting the life of Indians,” said Khobragade. Devyani’s father said that the whole allegations against his daughter were simply an attempt by the girl’s family to get settled in the United States. “There is no case against my daughter. They claim that my daughter had stated that she would be paying $4,500 to Sangeeta. However, the fact is Sangeeta had stated in the form that it was her employer’s (Devyani) salary. So where is the question of my daughter lied about Sangeeta’s salary,” Khobragade asked.
He said that he had pointed out the same to External Affairs Minister Salman Kurshid who agreed with him and said that ‘based on the charges brought against Devyani there seemed to be no case’. He further said that it was Sangeeta who had provided the information to the US officials and any discrepancy in the information was due to Sangeeta’s own error and not of her daughter. Khobragade said that the “family of Sangeeta Richard was deliberately flown from the country a few days before the arrest”.
He also released a letter allegedly written by Sangeeta in which she talks in glowing terms about working for Devyani. He said that he would be flying to Delhi on December 30 to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to apprise them about his daughter’s case.