Well, that didn’t take long!
Only two days after a Manhattan federal judge dismissed an indictment against an Indian diplomat who was notoriously booted from the United States after being enmeshed in a Nannygate scandal, Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara fired back on Friday by simply having a grand jury re-indict her.
Devyani Khobragade — whose New York arrest and strip search spurred an international flap — was again charged with visa fraud and making false statements in a 21-page indictment that is, word for word, exactly the same as an indictment she was slapped with in January.
Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled Wednesday that Khobragade, who had been India’s deputy consul-general in Manhattan, had diplomatic immunity when she moved to dismiss the indictment on Jan. 9, and as a result was entitled to the case’s dismissal.
However, since Khobragade immediately left the country after moving to dismiss the case, she lost that immunity — which opened the door to prosecutors indicting her again. With the new indictment, the case has now been assigned to Judge William Pauley III.
The 39-year-old women’s-rights champion, who served as deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women’s affairs, is accused of lying on official documents that claimed she was paying her female housekeeper $4,500 a month.
In reality, the feds say Khobragade forced Indian national Sangeeta Richard to work 100 or more hours a week, with no day off, for just $573 a month — or as little as $1.22 an hour.
The diplomat’s lawyer, Daniel Arshack, could not immediately be reached for comment, but he told The Post Wednesday that any attempt to re-indict his client “might well be viewed as an aggressive and unnecessary act.”
Messages left with the Consulate General of India’s office in Manhattan were not immediately returned.
After flying back to India in January, Khobragade has griped that she wants to return to America because she’s suffering “immense stress” at being separated from her husband and two daughters, ages 7 and 4, who all remain in the United States.
Khobragade’s hubby, Aakash Singh Rathore, is a New York-born US citizen who teaches philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.
She had complied with a Department of State order to leave the US, and the Indian government then asked Washington to withdraw a diplomat from the US Embassy in New Delhi.