Tit for tat: India expels US diplomat involved in Khobragade case

January 10, 2014

New Delhi, Jan 10: India Friday expelled an American diplomat involved in the case of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade after she was told to fly home following her indictment by a US grand jury.

Official sources said the US embassy was "asked to withdraw forthwith a US diplomat of similar rank as Khobragade".

embassy

"We have reason to believe that the officer was closely involved in the processes related to the (Khobragade case) and the subsequent unilateral action by the US side," a source said.

The US embassy could not be immediately reached for comments. The name of the expelled American diplomat was not known.

Khobragade, arrested and strip-searched for alleged visa fraud last month, was asked to leave the US after being formally indicted by a US grand jury Thursday.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin earlier said that Khobragade had been given a G1 visa with full diplomatic immunity, and was on her way back to India.

Khobragade's handcuffing and strip-search Dec 12 for alleged visa fraud and for allegedly underpaying her child's nanny caused a major row between New Delhi and Washington.

At the time of her arrest, Devyani, 39, was India's deputy consul general in New York.

Prosecutors said that after Khobragade was granted immunity, US officials told her to leave the country.

In a statement after the grand jury hearing, her lawyer Daniel Arshack said Khobragade "is pleased to be returning to her country.

"Her head is held high. She knows she has done no wrong and she looks forward to assuring that the truth is known".

Her father Uttam Khobragade thanked the Indian government for his daughter's return.

"It is only because of the entire Indian government's effort, my daughter is returning to India with full diplomatic immunity," he said.

The external affairs ministry said Khobragade was accorded Jan 8 the privileges and immunities of a diplomatic envoy.

"At the same time, the US government requested the government of India to waive (her) immunity.

"On Jan 9, India declined to do so and transferred Khobragade to the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi."

Khobragade reiterated her innocence. "She also affirmed her determination to ensure that the episode would not leave a lasting impact on her family, in particular, her children, who are still in the US," an official statement said.

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Delhi government has arranged to serve lunch and dinner to the needy in 325 schools in Delhi, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday amid reports of people going hungry without access to food during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

From Saturday, arrangements will be put in place to feed about four lakh people daily at different centres across Delhi, he said addressing the media. "We have made arrangements to provide lunch and dinner in 325 schools. Around 500 people will be provided with food in all these schools. So far we were providing food to 20,000 people daily, the number will now increase to around 2,00,000 from today."

He also said that "from tomorrow, we'll be providing food to 4,00,000 people daily. We're distributing the centres across Delhi."

Stating that the total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Delhi is now 39, Kejriwal said "We are ready to face any challenge.".

"There are a total of 39 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi as of today, of which 29 cases are of those who had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these were cases of local transmission," said Kejriwal at a press conference.

The Chief Minister said that a team of 5 doctors has been set up to look into the preparedness needed to deal with an increase in the number of positive cases for coronavirus in future.

He said, "The team of doctors under the chairmanship of Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, the head of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, presented a detailed report on March 26 on the preparedness needed to deal with a situation if the number of positive cases for coronavirus increases."

"The report has categorized three situations - if the number of positive cases increases to 100 per day, 500 per day and 1000 per day," he said while adding that the doctors have clearly stated what preparedness should be taken for each situation including the number of ventilators, isolation beds, doctors and nurses required.

He also cited concerns raised by chief ministers of several states including Jharkhand's Hemant Soren and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee.

Kejriwal said "we consider all those living in Delhi as Delhiites and everyone will be taken care of."
The number of cases tested positive for coronavirus rose to 724 on Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

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News Network
April 22,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 22: Eleven more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Kerala with totalpositive cases in the State touching 437on Wednesday.

Two house surgeonsof the Kozhikode Medical college are among those who have tested positive for the virus.

The two had travelled outside the state,Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters.

Kannur reported seven cases, Kozhikode two, while one case each was reported from the districts of Kottayam and Malappuram.

Only one person tested negative.

The state has 127 active cases and 29,000 people are under observation, including 346 in hospitals.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Visakhapatnam, Jun 13: A four-month-old baby who was on ventilator treatment for 18 days for COVID-19 was on Friday evening discharged from hospital after testing negative.

"A tribal woman of East Godavari named Laxmi was infected with COVID-19 in May, later the doctors confirmed that her four-month-old baby was also infected," said District Collector, Vinay Chand.

"The baby was shifted to Visakhapatnam VIMS hospital on May 25. She was treated for 18 days on a ventilator. Doctors again conducted baby's COVID-19 test recently, following which the reports came negative. After a health check-up, VIMS doctors discharged the baby on Friday evening," he added.

Meanwhile, 14 new COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in Visakhapatnam district on Friday, taking the total number of cases to 252 including one fatality due to the virus.

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