US official ‘assisted’ in maid’s kin evacuation
It is suspected that Uzra Zeya, a US official, helped evacuation of maid’s kin.
New Delhi: As India fumes over the “evacuation” of the family of Sangeeta Richard, the maid at the centre of the row over the arrest of Devyani Khobragade, it’s being wondered here if Uzra Zeya, the acting assistant secretary in the bureau of democracy, human rights, and labour of the US state department, had any role to play in the family’s flight to the US.
Zeya, who traces her roots to India, served as minister counsellor for political affairs at the US embassy in New Delhi some years ago and is believed to have stayed in a bungalow on 5, Aurangzeb Road.
It’s the house where the in-laws of Ms Richard presumably worked for Ms Beya while she resided there. US ambassador Nancy Powell, continued to be snubbed here with the BJP deciding to withdraw the invite to attend Narendra Modi’s rally in Mumbai on Sunday.
The Centre has also questioned the need to “evacuate” Ms Richard’s family when legal proceedings had already been initiated against her and her husband.
Next: I was also treated like Devyani, says Former French diplomat
I was also treated like Devyani: Mazurier
Bangalore: Former French diplomat Pascal Mazurier accused of raping his daughter on Saturday said the humiliation that Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade faced in the US is very similar to the ordeal and ill-treatment faced by him here.
Talking to the media, he demanded speedy justice for both Ms Khobragade and himself, and said that he should be allowed to meet his children, which has been denied to him for the last 18 months.
“It is 18 months since I have my son. The Indian government quickly intervened for the cause of Indian children abroad in two cases. Why am I not being treated the same,” he asked.
Like Ms Khobragade, he was also strip searched and lodged in a jail with murderers and drug peddlers for four traumatic months.
“A false case has been lodged against me on alleged charges of raping my three-year-and-ten month-old daughter. But the DNA samples have not matched,” Mazurier said.