Ramdas Athawale wants Devyani Khobragade as his private secretary?

Devyani's father Uttam Khobragade, a former IAS officer, is the national executive president of Athawale's party RPI-A.

New Delhi: Newly appointed Minister of State for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale is reported to be keen on appointing former Deputy Consul-General of India in New York Devyani Khobragade as his private secretary.

While news agency PTI claimed that the order to appoint Khobragade as Athawale's PS was passed yesterday, the Hindustan Times reported on Friday that while a proposal has been moved with the MEA but no decision has been taken yet.

The newspaper also reported that the MEA has denied having received any such proposal. Currently posted as a director in the MEA, Devyani has been on study leave for over six months.

Interestingly, Devyani's father Uttam Khobragade, a former IAS officer, is the national executive president of RPI-A, which is part of the Bharatiya Janta Party-Shiv Sena-led Mahayuti (grand alliance) in Maharashtra, and had joined the party in September 2014.

Devyani, a 1999-batch IFS officer was arrested on December 12, 2013, in the US when she was India's Deputy Consul-General in New York on visa fraud charges and for allegedly providing false declarations in a visa application for her maid.

She later was released on a $250,000 bond. The incident had triggered a diplomatic row between the US and India.