NY-based Indian Diplomat’s Daughter Arrested For Crime She Did Not Commit, Real Culprit Let To Go Scot Free

It is an unfortunate incident that cannot be expected to take place in a city like New York.

Krittika Biswas, the 18 years old daughter of a New York based senior Indian diplomat, was arrested and suspended from high school for a crime she did not commit in the first place – sending sexually explicit mails to her teachers.

Krittika Biswas is the daughter of Debashish Biswas, the vice consul at the Consulate General of India in Manhattan.

On February 8, 2011, this bright student of John Bowne High School was paraded out of her school in, hold your breath, handcuffs. And that was followed by the ordeal of spending 28 hours in a dark cell.

However, later the school Principal Howard Kwait identified a male student to be the real culprit.

Naturally, now the charges against Krittika were dropped. However, now two interesting (read more unfortunate) things happened.

Though now the real culprit was identified, he did not have to face any legal action like what innocent Krittika had to face. Reason? Well, the school did not want to press charges against him. (Why? Is there any racial angle in this story?)

More interestingly, even after the baseless charges against Krittika were dropped, school officials insisted to keep the hapless girl detained in a suspension centre for more than one month. Reason? Well, I suppose only the almighty has the answer.

Now Krittika is suing the New York City administration for $1.5 million for the wrongful arrest and the subsequent harassments. I feel the amount is quite low given the strong blow that her self-respect sense suffered.

I sincerely hope that the US government will take serious note of the issue, and will ensure that all the people directly or indirectly responsible for Krittika’s nightmarish experience are brought to book.