Diplomat case probe: MEA yet to get response from Saudi embassy

New Delhi: The waiting game in the case involving a Saudi diplomat, accused of raping two Nepalese women, continued today with External Affairs Ministry yet to get any response from the Saudi Arabia embassy here on its demand to cooperate in the investigations.

Official sources said the MEA was yet to get any kind of response from the Saudi Embassy which was asked to waive the official's diplomatic immunity and cooperate in the investigations. They also indicated that the government will wait for some more time before deciding on any further action in the case.

Saudi Arabian Ambassador Saud Mohammed Alsati was called to the MEA on Thursday and told that the accused diplomat should give a statement to Gurgaon police probing the case.

"MEA Chief of Protocol called in Saudi Ambassador and conveyed request of Haryana Police for cooperation of Embassy in the case of two Nepali citizens," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup had said.

The Saudi envoy was called a day after MEA had received a "detailed report" about the case from Gurgaon Police including the second medical report confirming rape and sodomy.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon police are waiting for directions from the MEA on how to proceed in the controversial case.

It is understood that the diplomat along with his family is currently staying in the Saudi Embassy here. The two Nepalese women have already gone back to their country.

Asked whether Saudi Arabia has invoked diplomatic immunity of the diplomat, accused of confining and raping the women at his house in Gurgaon, to enable him escape prosecution, the sources said India has not been informed about any such move.

The options before Saudi Arabia are to either withdraw the diplomat or waive his diplomatic immunity to enable prosecution proceedings. The latter being very unlikely.

India can declare him persona non grata and expel him if he does not cooperate with the investigation.

The Saudi Embassy has termed the allegations as "false" and said it has protested police "intrusion" into a diplomat's house against "all diplomatic conventions".

The two Nepalese women have alleged that they were confined and raped by the diplomat and his "guests" repeatedly in a flat in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the national capital after which the local police filed an FIR in the matter.