How the tax evasion? I mean if have used tax-free tickets for him or any other consular officials, or any official from US govt, is understandable. Even the consular officials family do not have tax free priviliges. How can he get tax free tickets for Indian citizens, unrelated to his business work? Pardon but how this is official?
Secondly, I am sure, there would be people who work as teachers for free. Personally even me know many Sashan. But of course there are many who work for money, even US families.
The point is if A country goes into such details and technalities, why cant a B country do the same? If India looks into in deeply, they are breaking local laws for sure,
There is a case in US against and ther US DOJ feels there is witness intimidation. The instruction goes to US DOS under whom the consular official comes to secure the witness. That is official line of business and even if India thinks it is wrong - it is a crime committed by consular official in the official line of work. And what is the penalty in India for a tax evasion of some few thousand rupees even if India proceeds to arrest the consular official? I think it is 3 times fine for the first 1 lakh or something. So still the consular official will pay the fine and will walk out.
And if there is a serious crime on part of the US consular officials, let India take action against. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Also let me explain why US has taken this seriously repeating what I posted in another thread.
US was privy to these kinds of maid abuse not just by India but by other countries. So in 2008, formulated William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act which was meant to be protecting all the workers coming to US from the unfair treatment by their employers(not just the maids, even the software professionals and other educated employees). As per this law the diplomats/consular officers were made known of and had the obligation to inform their employees of their rights(in case of A3 visas) and read the pamplet link I published below on what the rights are.
In 2008, the US government accountability office (GAO) published a report which identified 42 instances of diplomats in the US accused of abusing foreign employees they had brought to the country between 2000 and 2008.
The GAO report conceded that this almost certainly underestimated the problem. Nearly a third of the accused diplomats were from Africa while 15 per cent were from Asia and 2.5 per cent from Europe.
Also in 2008, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act strengthened protections offered to employees of diplomats and consular officials employees and made it possible to censure employers.
And many previous cases were successfully prosecuted -
1. There was a civil court law suit against Neena Malhotra who enjoyed full diplomatic immunity unlike Devyani was sued for $1.5 million and in this case the maid abused was a 17 year old girl called Shanti Gurung but she had run away to India without facing the civil charges.
2. Another Indian diplomat Prabhu Dayal settled for an undiclosed sum for abusing the maid.
3. Another Mauritius diplomat settled for a retribution of $25,000 and a fine of $5000.
4. Another Taiwanese diplomat was prosecuted and was asked to pay about $80,000
http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/Pamphlet-Order.pdf
So it is not a case of mere technicality in the eyes of US else the 2008 act wouldn't have happened. Ofcourse it covers the H1B professionals as well.
Also I will say why I feel strongly about this case(which is separate from which country I support)
In 1990s, H1B professionals from India and other countries need to wait 3 months for the visa approval from the US DOS for the employees to work for other employers. Many employers, mostly Indian bodyshoppers harassed the employees and even threatened the employees with revoking visas(covered here in the new law under fear and threat) and sometimes will not file the tax deductions for employees with IRS making the H1B employees culprits as well while not paying their salaries all for the greediness of the Employers. In few cases, the employees' medical insurance were revoked by the greedy employers breaking laws with impunity and threatening the employees who though were educated were afraid to go to the authorities. I knew atleast 2 of them in this situation.
US INS(under US DOS - now renamed as USCIS) stepped in after seeing many cases of harassment and changed the procedure in that the employees can go work for new employer if the new employer's visa for the employee was filed with US DOS. Which would mean the employee can go work for new employer in a matter of days. Still the harassment was there.
And the 2008 law(which covers the A3 visa as well) fixed most of the gaps under which the H1B bodyshoppers were exploiting the employees. US took cognizance of harassments of the maids, of the software professionals and others and brought in this comprehensive law.
So you see my opinion is formed due to what I saw over a period of years and why my sympathy is with the maid.