India calls on Saudi Arabia to cooperate in rape investigation against senior diplomat

Indian authorities have asked Saudi Arabia's government not to hinder the progress of their investigation into a Saudi official accused of raping and enslaving two women.

Police, acting on a tip from a human rights NGO, searched the luxury apartment of the senior diplomat in the satellite town of Gurgaon, New Delhi, earlier this week and recovered the two women who they claim were being held there.

The Nepali women, aged 30 and 50, who were working as domestic servants for the diplomat, told police they were held in the apartment against their will for months.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, said Saudi authorities have been asked to cooperate.

The Saudi embassy has denied the charges as "completely false" and called the search on the apartment "intrusive" and a breach of the accused's diplomatic privilege.

The identity of the diplomat is being protected by Saudi authorities, who have taken him into residence in their New Delhi embassy.

No action can be taken by Delhi police against the accused unless his diplomatic immunity is waived by the Saudi government.

India is working to improve its relations with both Saudi Arabia and Nepal and the investigation may cause a diplomatic crisis with one or both countries.

The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, is due to travel to Saudi Arabia later in the year. It is feared that the Gulf kingdom may put pressure of Indian authorities to drop the investigation despite public pressure to prosecute.

The women, both from remote rural areas of Nepal, had been sent to Delhi for work by a Nepali agency, campaigners said. The pair was flown home on Wednesday.

The Times of India said: "The diplomat has to go, one way or another."

"If the Saudis don’t defuse the situation by taking their diplomat home, the Indian government would find itself compelled to declare him persona non grata and expel him."