Devyani Khobragade is a central civil servant of Indian Foreign Service cadre. She was in the news after being charged with visa fraud when she was posted in the Indian Consul in New York City in the United States. She is currently serving as ambassador of India to Cambodia at Embassy of India, Phnom Penh.
Early life
Khobragade was born in Tarapur, Maharashtra, in a Buddhist family from Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. Khobragade's father, Uttam Khobragade, was an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. He was also implicated in a number of corruption scandals.
She attended Mount Carmel High School in Mumbai. She obtained a degree in medicine from King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College.
Career
Khobragade joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1999. In 2012, she was posted to the Consulate General of India in New York where she worked as Deputy Consul General till December 2013. She handled women's affairs as well as political and economic issues. As acting Consul General, she provided her personal perspective on Women's Rights and the Influence of Demographics in India at the Australian Consulate-General in New York in April 2013.
On 20 January 2014 she was posted to New Delhi as director of the Development Partnership Administration (DPA), an agency formed in 2013 at the Ministry of External Affairs to handle India's projects overseas. In December 2014 the Ministry of External Affairs removed her from this post and placed her on "compulsory wait". In July 2015 she was reinstated as a director in the Ministry of External Affairs, this time in its State Governments division. She chose to work with Kerala, aiming to promote its interests overseas in areas like investment, culture, tourism and the well-being of its large diaspora in the Gulf countries.
Khobragade was selected for the Chevening Rolls-Royce scholarship in 2012.
She was appointed Ambassador to Cambodia on 2 October 2020.
Personal life
Khobragade is married to an American citizen, New York-born Dr. Aakash Singh Rathore, who is research professor at University of Luiss, Rome, Italy. Since Rathore is a foreign national married to an Indian diplomat, he has applied for Indian citizenship which has not yet been granted since he has not completed the required domicile period in India.
The couple have two daughters, who were ages 7 and 4 in 2013. Khobragade's father, Uttam, was an officer in the Indian Administrative Service.
Controversies
Besides the Devyani Khobragade incident, her name is mostly in news with her father Uttam Khobragade for Adarsh Housing Society scam.
United States visa fraud
On 12 December 2013, Devyani Khobragade, India's Deputy Consul General at its diplomatic mission in New York City at that time, was arrested on charges of visa fraud and perjury under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1546. This incident led to a major diplomatic standoff between India and the United States.
Adarsh Housing Society scam
Devyani Khobragade and her father Uttam Khobragade owned a flat in the Adarsh Housing Society. A government investigation and subsequent media coverage described false statements that she made to acquire the flat, as part of the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Undue favours in her postings
There is a clear finding by the Supreme Court of India that Ms. Devyani Khobragade was given a posting of her choice in the Indian Foreign Service by bending and modifying the specific rules of allocation for the specific year of 1999 where she was ranked lower than a meritorious batch mate of hers, Mr. Mahaveer C Singhvi. The finding appears in the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in a case filed by the victim batch mate against the vendetta activities of the Ministry of External Affairs effecting his service in the case of Union of India v Mahaveer C Singhvi. The Supreme Court of India in its Judgment stated "The mode of allotment was amended for the 1999 Batch in such a calculated fashion that Ms. Khobragade, who was at Serial No.7, was given her choice of German over and above the Respondent who was graded at two stages above her."