Expelled US diplomat helped in evacuation of maid's family to US

While American diplomat Wayne May, chief of the US embassy’s diplomatic security contingent in Delhi who left India on Saturday after India expelled him in a tit-for-tat action, had reportedly employed the parents-in-law of Sangeeta Richard, the domestic help at the centre of the visa fraud case against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade.

According to reports, May is believed to have facilitated the urgent evacuation of Sangeeta’s husband Philip and their children to the US last month. His role in the case has led to India expelling him, said reports.

“Many have wondered as to why US authorities approved surreptitious evacuation of Sangeeta’s family even at the cost of antagonizing a strategic partner. India had said May was responsible for the unilateral action by the State Department in evacuating the family and the subsequent arrest of Khobragade,” according to a report in The Times of India .

Regional security officer Wayne May, with over 27 years of service in the US government, was the coordination officer of the India-US anti-terrorism assistance programme. He is also a special agent of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the division of the US State Department that is the complainant against Khobragade in the visa fraud case.

A report in The Indian Express  also said May’s wife Alicia Muller May, also employed at the US Embassy as a Community Liaison Officer, had reportedly used her privileges to buy tax-exempted air tickets for Philip and the children who left on trafficking visas. Only diplomats and their families are usually eligible for the tax exemption.

“However, New Delhi subsequently decided that reciprocal action should be taken against a diplomat of the same rank as Khobragade, resulting in the notice to the US to withdraw Wayne, who is a consular level officer,” said the report.

Meanwhile, defending India’s stand on the issue, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate show that India would continue pressing for dropping of the visa fraud charges against Khobragade and made it clear that there was no rethink on restoring extra privileges to American diplomats here.

Asserting that Khobragade was not guilty of wrongdoings as charged by the US authorities, Khurshid said efforts would be on to “clean up things completely” to the satisfaction of both sides.

He described the entire affair as a “mini crisis”.