India on Friday expelled a U.S. diplomat of the same rank as Devyani Khobragade.
The diplomat, Wayne May of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in US Embassy, was given 48 hours to leave the country with government sources saying he was involved in facilitating the ‘evacuation’ of the maid’s family from India with whom Ms. Khobragade had a contractual dispute.
The maid’s family left India for the U.S. two days before Ms. Khobragade was handcuffed and briefly detained in New York.
India is adopting the same course as the U.S., which asked her to leave after refusing a request to waive off her diplomatic immunity.
India is taking such an action against the U.S. after 33 years. It had sent back Political Counsellor George Griffin in retaliation for the returning of Prabhakar Menon.
Official sources preferred to say the U.S. embassy had been asked to “withdraw” its diplomat instead of using the term “expelled.”