It’s going to be an Indian summer for the NYPD cop who was busted last month at a New Delhi airport after accidentally leaving three bullets in his luggage.
Veteran Harlem cop Manny Encarnacion will be stuck in the country until at least July 1, after a judge adjourned his case Thursday until the end of the court’s summer recess.
Both Encarnacion and his new wife, Vida Islami, wept upon hearing the ruling after a 20-minute hearing at the Delhi High Court.
“It did not work out the way we thought it would,” said the cop’s lawyer, Samarjeet Pattnaik, who thought the judge would quash the matter.
“We are extremely disappointed by this further delay, but even more disappointed by the length of the adjournment.”
Pattnaik had petitioned the court to throw out the charges. He also asked for a break because Encarnacion is a cop and obviously did not act maliciously.
Encarnacion has said he slipped the live bullets in a jacket pocket during a visit to a firing range and inadvertently left them there while packing his luggage.
But the judge wanted to give prosecutors more time to review the case and others like it before letting Encarnacion, 49, off the hook.
He added he would try to have the next court date moved up to May.
If convicted, Encarnacion could face three to seven years in prison.
The cop, who made more than $117,000 in 2012, will remain free on bail and continue to receive a paycheck from the NYPD.
His fellow officers and detectives-union members have been raising money to help him pay his legal expenses, which have exceeded $11,000.
“They are obviously exploiting Manny for money,” a law-enforcement source said.
Encarnacion’s detention has been called revenge for a diplomatic flap in December, when Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was arrested in Manhattan and strip-searched after allegedly committing visa fraud on behalf of her nanny.
The nanny had told authorities she was mistreated and underpaid.
“There are documented cases of less authorized people who carried rounds into India and faced less punishment,” a police source said.