Lawyer: Housekeeper worked long days for just $3 an hour

The Indian housekeeper whose complaint against her employer sparked an international spat between New Delhi and Washington worked from morning until late at night, seven days a week, for less than $3 an hour taking care of the two children of a diplomat. Unable to get a better deal, she made sure the children were cared for one day and walked out, her lawyer said Thursday.

From that moment on, Sangeeta Richard relied on the kindness of strangers within the Indian community in New York City, and even was cared for at one point by a Sikh temple. She eventually connected with the nonprofit Safe Horizon, which has an anti-trafficking program.

"She was basically just trying to find her way. She was left with the clothes on her back, with very little money," attorney Dana Sussman said.

The housekeeper and her Safe Horizon attorney, Dana Sussman, eventually went to the State Department with the allegations. Her employer, Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was arrested last week and accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for Richard. According to prosecutors, Khobragade claimed she paid the woman $4,500 a month, but actually paid her around $3 per hour.

Richard's and Khobragade's accounts of the events that led to the diplomat's arrest and touched off a diplomatic furor between the United States and India differ greatly.

The diplomat and Indian officials say Khobragade is the victim who was being blackmailed by her maid and was mistreated by authorities in the United States.

The case has chilled U.S.-Indian relations, and India has revoked privileges for U.S. diplomats in protest. India revoked diplomat ID cards that brought certain privileges as retaliation, demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in U.S. Embassy households, and withdrawing import licenses that allowed the commissary at the U.S. Embassy to import alcohol and food.

Sussman and others in the U.S. say the outrage is misdirected.

"It's quite overwhelming for her," Sussman said of her client. "I think she's been frustrated with the response that somehow has been on the victimization of the defendant."

Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said Thursday the housekeeper had been blackmailing the diplomat. He said Richard had threatened over the summer to go to the police unless Khobragade arranged a new passport for her, along with a work visa and a large sum of money.

Sussman said the claims were inaccurate. "There was no extortion or anything about those lines," she said. "She essentially worked very long hours, was isolated within the home, and attempted to ask for more time off, ask for more reasonable hours, but those attempts to resolve the issues were unsuccessful."

Khobragade could face a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration if convicted. She has said she has full diplomatic immunity. The Department of State disputes that, saying her immunity is limited to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions. Her work status Thursday was unclear.

Having a live-in maid or part-time domestic help is common in Indian households, even among the lower and middle classes. A salary of $3 an hour, or around $24 for an eight-hour day, is more than what a well-paid maid would earn in New Delhi or Mumbai.

The Associated Press