India asks US to withdraw diplomat as row escalates

The row could escalate further next week when Ms Khobragade was due to appear in court and India had set a deadline for the American Embassy in New Delhi to close its popular social club, which India said was operating illegally.

A planned visit by US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was cancelled as the relationship President Barack Obama had called the defining partnership of the 21st Century deteriorated further.

A spokesman for Indias Ministry of External Affairs said it would take the restoration of its formerly good relationship with the United States one day at a time.

We will decide things after we talk to her [Ms Khobragade]. Were all committed to a better relationship with the United States. Our concern was how this happened. This is not the way partners treat one another, she was arrested and handcuffed without conversations, he said.

Ms Khobragade, who returned to India last night, has yet to make a statement since she left rhe United States, but her father, a former senior civil servant, said she had done nothing wrong but had stood up for Indias sovereignty.

The indictment paints a picture of Ms Khobragade as a harsh employer who refused to allow her housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, vacation time or days off, even telling her "not to get sick because it was expensive".

US prosecutors say that not only did Ms Khobragade lie about the housekeeper's monthly salary but that she often forced her to work more than 100 hours a week without a single full day off. The long hours meant Ms Richard was earning an actual wage of $1.42 or less per hour, the indictment said.

After about six months of working for Ms Khobragade, Ms Richard fled and sought help from a nonprofit group that works with victims of human trafficking because Ms Khobragade refused to hand over her passport and allow her to return home, according to the indictment.

It also alleges that after the housekeeper fled, Ms Khobragade and a relative tried to intimidate Ms Richard's family back in India by demanding they reveal her whereabouts. Ms Khobragade also launched a legal complaint against Ms Richard in India.

In her first public comments, Ms Richard said on Thursday that she had decided to come to the US to work for a few years to support her family and then return to India.

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India asks US to withdraw diplomat as row escalates