The Indian diplomat who caused a standoff between the US and her home country by exploiting her housekeeper has been sued by the poorly paid worker at the center of the 2014 incident.
Diplomat Devyani Khobragade was sued in Manhattan federal court for forced labor, trafficking and wage violations by a woman who was not named but whose case exactly matches that of the housekeeper at the center of the former international scuffle.
A lawyer for the plaintiff, who went only by Jane Doe, did not return a request for comment.
Khobragade was arrested in late 2013 for lying on a visa application she filed for the housekeeper, who she brought over from India in 2012. The charge against the diplomat sparked outrage from Indian officials.
Khobragade was ultimately granted diplomatic immunity and allowed to return to India, where she still resides.
The lawsuit claims that Khobragade told US authorities she was going to pay the woman $9.75 an hour, plus seven paid holidays and seven paid vacation days.
In reality, she was paying the worker closer to $3.99 an hour and forcing the woman — who expected a 40-hour work week — to work 16-plus hours days seven days a week, the lawsuit said.
Khobragade often screamed at the housekeeper, including when the food was not hot enough, and refused to let her seek medical help when she was hurt, such as when she “cut her finger severely and was bleeding heavily,” the lawsuit said.
The alleged abuse was so bad that the housekeeper, who has since returned to India, fled her Manhattan apartment in the summer of 2013.
Soon afterward, the housekeeper’s “husband and son were contacted by police officers and taken into custody” where they were “questioned for hours regarding plaintiff’s whereabouts,” the lawsuit said.