Indian diplomat leaves US under immunity

The case caused a serious rift between the United States and India, which described Devyani Khobragade's treatment as outrageous and heavy-handed.

"As a family, (we) would not like to touch the soil of the country (USA) which treat human being in such a inhuman way in an utter violation of the human right, utter violation of the Geneva convention," her father Uttam Khobragade, a retired bureaucrat, said.

Ms Khobragade had been facing charges of underpaying her Indian-born housekeeper and lying about it on a visa form.

Her departure from the US could signal a cooling of tensions and give both countries a way to claim victory, although her father said the case was a triumph for India because his daughter was leaving the US with full diplomatic immunity.

The issue of immunity is key to the case, which erupted a month ago when Ms Khobragade, a 39-year-old mother of two, was arrested.

She was strip-searched and kept in a cell with other criminal defendants before being released on bail of $250,000.

In recent weeks, federal officials have said that Ms Khobragade's immunity is limited to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.

But on Thursday, a US government official in Washington said the US had accepted India's request to accredit her to the United Nations, which confers broader immunity.

It would be almost unprecedented for the US to deny such a request unless the diplomat was a national security risk.

The United States then asked the government of India to waive the newly granted immunity so they could prosecute her, but India refused.

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Indian diplomat leaves US under immunity