An Indian diplomat?s daughter who is suing the New York City government for $1.5 million after she was unfairly arrested on the suspicion of sending obscene e-mails, was not eligible for diplomatic immunity, the U.S. State Department said.
Krittika Biswas, 18, said that was humiliatingly removed from her school in handcuffs after being accused of sending the nasty emails to her high school teacher in Queens in February and was held for 28 hours.
However, she was later cleared of any wrongdoing as another student was found to have sent the obscene e-mails. Even though Biswas was eventually allowed back into the Queens’ John Bowne High School, that student was never arrested.
Speaking on the matter, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, ?The Vienna Convention on Consular Affairs provides that consular officers are not liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a felony where a court warrant is required. But that provision does not apply to family members.?
Even though family members of the diplomats do carry diplomatic passports, he admitted, but diplomatic immunity does not apply to them, Toner asserted, adding that there were different provisions for consular officers and embassies.
Biswas, the daughter of the vice consul at the Consulate General of India in Manhattan Debashish Biswas, also alleged that the police had failed to read her rights and even ignored her diplomatic immunity.
In prison she was ill-treated and was forced to go to the toilet in front of her cellmates, she said.
Her lawyer Rajiv Batra said that her arrest on Feb 8 was a violation of international law, US federal law as well as U.S. state and city law and she was traumatised by her temporary incarceration.