New Delhi:
The Indian government has come out in support of Krittika Biswas, the daughter of an Indian diplomat, who was arrested and spent 24 hours in jail in the US on false charges.
Expressing India's concerns, Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, said, "We have, subsequent to her release also, expressed our concerns to the US government about the way in which she was treated. It's a case which obviously concerns all of us."
Krittika, 18-year-old student of John Bowne High School, has sued the New York City for 1.5 million for her wrongful arrest.
She is the daughter of Debashish Biswas, vice consul (administration) at the Indian Consulate General in New York.
Krittika said her claims of diplomatic immunity were ignored when she was handcuffed and locked up for more than 24 hours on February 8 after a shoddy probe by administrators into alleged obscene emails sent to two teachers in her school.
The US government has, however, said that family members of the diplomat don't enjoy diplomatic immunity.
"My understanding is that as a family member of consular officer, rather, she does not enjoy immunity from jurisdiction or inviolability," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Wednesday.
Toner acknowledged that diplomats' family members carry a diplomatic passport, "but again, our understanding is that these provisions, however, don't apply to their family members and that this is different for consular officers versus those in the embassy".
The spokesman insisted that the incident would not affect US ties with New Delhi saying, "The US-Indian relationship, I would counter, has never been stronger."