Senior Indian Diplomat in the US, Devyani Khobragade has left for India. She was yesterday indicted for visa fraud and making false statements, but permitted to leave the US as she was accorded diplomatic immunity. In a letter to New York District Judge Shira Scheindlin, US Attorney Preet Bharara said that the charges against 39-year-old Khobragade will remain and she will have to face trial, if she returns to the US without diplomatic immunity. Bharara said the grand jury has indicted the diplomat on two counts of visa fraud and making false statements in connection with the visa application of her domestic help Sangeeta Richard.

While boarding the plane back to India, Devyani said in New York that the charges against her are false and baseless and she looks forward to proving them wrong. She also affirmed her determination to ensure that this episode does not leave a lasting imprint on her family, in particular her children who are still in the US.

Khobragade was granted full diplomatic immunity on January 8th under the India-US Headquarters agreement. On January 9th, the US request for waiver of diplomatic immunity to Khobragade was refused by India.

A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, was arrested on December 12th on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid. She was released on a 250,000 dollar bond. The diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides, with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats.

The White House has described America's relationship with India as an extremely important one. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, in response to a question while talking to reporters in Washington yesterday,said that President Barack Obama believes strongly that ties between both countries need to continue and must be further cemented. He said Obama worked very hard on US-India relations in his first term, and will continue to do so in his second term. However, the presidential spokesperson did not give any indication of the White House position on the current bilateral spat between the world's two largest democracies after the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York last month.