NEW YORK : The US will hand over to India three stolen Indian sandstone sculptures valued at more than USD 1.5 million, in a display of cooperation between the two countries following a month-long row over the arrest and indictment of an Indian diplomat here.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and INTERPOL Washington will participate in a “cultural repatriation ceremony with India” at the Indian Consulate General, when the federal authorities will hand over the three stolen sculptures to Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay today.
The artefacts include a sculpture of Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi, a sandstone sculpture of Vishnu and Parvati and a blackstone figure of Bodhisattva.
HSI Executive Associate Director James Dinkins and INTERPOL Washington Director Shawn Bray will be in attendance at the ceremony. The statues were seized by HSI special agents here.
The exchange comes just days after diplomat Devyani Khobragade was asked to leave the US after she was accorded diplomatic immunity by the State Department and indicted on charges of visa fraud and making false statements regarding the employment terms of her domestic worker Sangeeta Richard.
To ensure full diplomatic immunity from criminal charges for Khobragade, India had transferred her to its Permanent Mission to the UN from the Indian Consulate, where she was deputy Consul General at the time of her arrest in December.
Incidentally, the repatriation ceremony will take place at the Indian Consulate, which had been Khobragade’s office before she was transferred to the Indian mission at the UN.
The ceremony is among the first displays of cooperation between the two nations following the diplomatic row that saw retaliatory actions by India, including removing security barricades from outside the US embassy in New Delhi and barring American officials access to duty-free liquor. (PTI)
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