Picture Exclusive: The housekeeper paid a 'slave wage' by Indian diplomat - and the leaked letter home in which she said she did not 'feel like a servant at all'

  • Sangeeta Richard, 42, from Kerala was employed as housekeeper to diplomat Devyani Khobragade in November 2012
  • December 2012 letter allegedly written to her sister from New York sees Mrs Richard describe her employer as 'very nice'
  • Says she felt 'not like a servant at all'
  • Dr Khobragade was arrested last week on charges of visa fraud and amid claims she paid Richard just $3.31 an hour
  • Indian government outrage has escalated into an international incident
  • Richard's attorney, Dana Sussman, says the 'real story and crime' has been lost in the scandal

By Laura Collins and James Tapper In New Delhi

PUBLISHED: 18:17 EST, 19 December 2013 | UPDATED: 19:15 EST, 19 December 2013

Her allegations of abuse have seen her diplomat employer arrested and triggered an international furor.

But now, a leaked letter home, written by housekeeper Sangeeta Richard, reveals her to have given her family in India a very different account of her life in New York to the one of ‘virtual slavery’ she has now alleged.

The letter was posted by diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s sister, Sharmistha, on her Facebook page as part of passionate defence of her sibling and rebuttal of the allegations leveled against her.
It was written in December 2012, just one month after her arrival in New York.

'Slave': Sangeeta Richard, with her husband Philip, who worked as a driver at the Embassy of Mozambique in Delhi, pictured in January 2010 - according to her mother in law she had always wanted to work abroad

'Slave': Sangeeta Richard, with her husband Philip, who worked as a driver at the Embassy of Mozambique in Delhi, pictured in January 2010 - according to her mother in law she had always wanted to work abroad

Every day a smile: Sangeeta's first impressions and description of her employer Devyani Khobragade, above, were positive as she embarked on her life in service in New York

Every day a smile: Sangeeta's first impressions and description of her employer Devyani Khobragade, above, were positive as she embarked on her life in service in New York

Mrs Khobragade does not say how she came to possess the text in which Mrs Richard described the Khobragade family and Dr Khobragade in particular as ‘very nice.’

She wrote: ‘This family is very nice. I’m not feeling I’m her servant. Children call me “Thai” – that means elder brother’s wife. They call me Sangeeta Thai. Madam is very nice.

‘Every day she has a smile.’

 

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Mrs Richard, 42, who is originally from Kerala, went onto claim that she received helped with her maid work allowing her ‘spare time’ and described the house into which the family were about to move: ‘Four bedroom, big sized and one big hall downstairs two rooms, upstairs two rooms.

Devyani Khobragade pictured in June 2013, just days before her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard went missing sparking a series of claims and counterclaims that would spiral out of control

Devyani Khobragade pictured in June 2013, just days before her housekeeper Sangeeta Richard went missing sparking a series of claims and counterclaims that would spiral out of control

 

‘My room is separate. Downstairs is lawn.’

She explained that until the family moved in their new home on the Upper East Side they were staying at The Beekman Tower Hotel and added: ‘Their window looks out at very nice buildings.’

She said that every day she prayed for her mother before going to sleep and promised to call and talk on Facebook ‘when master gives me a new SIM.’

'She ended the lett er, written in Hindi, with the admission: ‘I am trying to talk in English but I can’t – I forget. So bad :) Sangeeta.’

Attorney Dana Sussman, is representing Sangeeta Richard, she says the real story of the alleged fraud has been lost in the diplomatic row

Attorney Dana Sussman, is representing Sangeeta Richard, she says the real story of the alleged fraud has been lost in the diplomatic row

Earlier her mother-in-law Agnes, told the Indian Express, that Sangeeta had 'always wanted to work abroad.'

She said: 'I had reservations about the marriage but my son was in a hurry.'

The couple courted for three years before marrying. Agnes, claimed Mrs Richard left the marital home after just three days - returning only when she learned she was pregnant.

Following the birth of a daughter the couple moved to Fatehpur Beri in southwest Delhi.

Mrs Richard has not responded directly to the letter. 

But attorney Dana Sussman, who is representing her though the non-profit victim assistance agency Safe Horizon last night spoke of her ‘frustration and disappointment’ that focus had slipped from ‘crimes that were committed’ to ‘the criminal defendant.’

She pointed out that the case was about Dr Khobragade allegedly lying to the federal government about the wages she was paying Mrs Richard.

Mrs Richard has claimed she as paid just $3.31 an hour, below minium wage.

In a statement to the Press Trust of India Mrs Sussman said: ‘Dr Khobragade did not pay those wages, she grossly underpaid my client and required that my client work far more than she had expected.

In the dock: An artist's sketch of Devyani Khobragade at her arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court last week

In the dock: An artist's sketch of Devyani Khobragade at her arraignment in Manhattan Federal Court last week

Protesters in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, burn an effigy of Barack Obama as the international fall-out of Dr Khobragade's domestic dispute continues to escalate

Protesters in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar, burn an effigy of Barack Obama as the international fall-out of Dr Khobragade's domestic dispute continues to escalate

 

‘My client worked for her for quite a while and eventually she decided she could not tolerate the situation any longer.’

She refused to comment on her clients and her family’s whereabouts. Mrs Richard’s husband Philip, and parents flew into America two days before police swooped on Dr Khobragade and arresting her at the gates of her daughter’s Upper East Side school.

Since then the case has escalated to a state of international crisis.  News that a female diplomat had been strip-searched and held in a cell with drug addicts and sex workers before posting bail of $250,000 incensed the Indian government and public.

US diplomats in India swiftly found many of their privileges rescinded and safety barriers removed from their embassy in New Delhi.

Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his ‘regret as well as his concern’ over the incident in a telephone call to Indian National Security Advisor Shivshanker Menon. He spoke of his hope that the ‘close and vital relationship with India’ remain unharmed.

But nothing short of dropping the charges – one count of Visa Fraud one of False Statement – against Dr Khobragade seems likely to satisfy Indian authorities in the case which has now been raised in the nation’s parliament.

Against this backdrop Mrs Sussman’s statement continued: ‘Mrs Richard is not on trial here and we think that the message here has been lost in the fact that there are charges against Khobragade for violating US law and those charges relate to the underpayment of wages to a domestic worker.

‘That is the story that has been lost in the diplomatic row that has erupted between US and India.’

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She probably is better off here in the US than she would be in India. That's like saying I happy being poor here in the US than starving in India.

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She wrote the letter before she got her 1st paycheck... it's meaningless.

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They must be having a low call volume at the call centers in India to go out and burn pictures of Obama

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It's really a very simple matter. Demonstrate and provide documentation proving that you paid this woman the minimum wage and the whole thing is over. Oh, can't do that? Hmmmm. She IS a poster child for privilege and a fantastic example of why "multi-culti" can NEVER work. In India $3.31 puts you in a high tax bracket and, although they will tell you different, there is still a "caste" system.

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!. she may have written the letter under duress, with her employers watching. 2. Even if she meant what she wrote, and conditions with this employer compared favorably to India, where there are no minimum wages or working standards like the US, the employer still broke the law of the land. Not sure if that justifies a strip search, but she should certainly be penalized if found guilty.

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if the papers were originally falsified, i'm sure it's easy to falsify a letter. It's basically heresy...we didn't see the letter. Even so, how did she get the letter? Were they checking her mail to see what she was writing about? Maybe they knew she was complaining about the wages she was earning and she did write that letter because she KNEW they would read it. I don't get HOW this diplomat can complain about the way she was treated when she came to the US. She wasn't back in India...if she wants to follow Indian rules, then stay in India. That's the problem with diplomatic immunity...these diplomats think it's a pass to not obey rules in other countries.

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Diplomat or not when you commit a crime you must be punished.

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We don't yet know the facts. Perhaps a trial will educe them. But the behavior of the US marshals was inexcusable, if what Ms. Khobragade says is true -- and even if what Ms. Richard alleges is true. Of course, half of Texas and California households ...

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How do we know this letter wasn't being monitored by her employer. If she was a slave then it stands to reason she had very little freedom or privacy and her correspondence was being read too.

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That artist who did the "impression" should be jailed for impression abuse!! Took a HOT lady and made her look like Hilary Clinton!!....................just sayin'

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