An NYPD officer is being held in India for carrying three bullets in his checked luggage—but officials believe this is "blatant retribution" for Nannygate last year, when a senior Indian diplomat was strip-searched, arrested, and denied diplomatic immunity over visa fraud charges while in NYC. Rep. Peter King says that Officer Manny Encarnacion, 49, is being held on trumped-up charges as revenge against NYC: "It just seems obvious payback," King told PIX 11. "A guard at the airport even made a comment about the strip search in New York. This is obvious retribution."
Encarnacion says a cop at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport said, "You guys like to strip-search our diplomats," when he was arrested on March 10th for inadvertently traveling there with three bullets in his checked luggage. Encarnacion had gone to the department firing range two days before he left for India, and put the bullets in a coat pocket which he then packed into his bag.
Encarnacion, who traveled to India to visit his wife, was charged with violating the country’s Arms Act of 1959, is not allowed to leave the country, and faces up to seven years in an Indian prison.
"They’re dealing with a person who they know is innocent," King told 1010 WINS. "This is the type of thing we used to associate with the Soviet Union or a third world dictatorship, not what actually is the world’s largest democracy." Senator Charles Schumer agreed: "I think the Indian government is making a huge mistake to use a veteran and an active NYPD officer as a pawn in their game. I think their behavior is sort of juvenile."
Back in December, Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, a 39-year-old deputy consul in the Indian consulate in NYC, applied for a visa for her caregiver. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharaha's office alleged that she claimed she was paying the woman $4,500, but it was actually only $573 (about $3.31 (or less)/hour). This sparked a minor international incident, one which King, Schumer and others think is to blame for Encarnacion's current situation.
"What they did is childish. It’s almost tit for tat, but it’s done in a very, very wrong way. If there are ways India feels bad about what happened there are far more mature and reasonable ways to do it," Sen. Schumer added. Mayor de Blasio said he was "troubled" by the incident, and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says they've been keeping close track of what's been going on. "We’re staying very engaged with that issue in Indiana," Bratton said. "We are certainly concerned for that officer and his wife who is with him at this time."
Encarnacion's friend Raul Borbon told the Post that he's been in regular contact with his superiors, and fellow officers are preparing for his eventual return: "His bosses already said when he comes back, they’re taking him out for Indian food—he’s already sick of the food."
