NEW YORK/NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Wednesday came out in full support of 18-year-old Krittika Biswas, daughter of an Indian diplomat, after she sued the New York City government for $1.5 million for being arrested on false charges, handcuffed and confined with criminals. Krittika's harrowing experience began after she was accused of sending anti-semitic emails to her school teachers sometime in December 2010 — a charge that she repeatedly denied. She was arrested on February 8 and kept in jail for 24 hours before the Indian consulate and the embassy in Washington swung into action to secure her release from prison. Thereafter, despite the Queens district attorney dropping the charges and expunging her arrest from the record, school officials sent Krittika to a suspension centre. There, Krittika told Times Now, she was treated like a criminal and forced to spend time with "HIV patients and sex workers". Her arrest and confinement have raised questions of racial bias in the New York Police as well as the school authorities.

The teenager told Times Now that when she told the cops to contact the Indian consulate, they asked her, "Are you a diplomat?" On Wednesday, lawyer Ravi Batra said Krittika, whose father Debashish Biswas is vice counsel at the Indian consulate here, has sued the New York City government claiming $1.5 million in damages. Indian consulate general Prabhu Dayal said Krittika deserved the compensation from the US government as "she has undergone mental and physical torture. This has scarred her mind for the rest of her life."

Official sources in the Ministry of External Affairs told TOI, "We have taken this issue up with the US government. We have conveyed our anguish at the incident." They even said that the school's decision to not charge the real culprit, an "Asian" boy, spoke volumes of their "double standards". She alleged that she was not allowed to use the bathroom when she was in custody at the 107th precinct. "Eventually, I had to go in front of everyone," she said, referring to a small toilet in the cell occupied by other people.s Batra said that her more than 24-hour arrest violated international, federal, state and city laws. Batra said neither Krittika's father nor the consulate general were informed of her arrest on February 8. "They (the school) based my arrest on basically nothing," Krittika said, adding that the school did not suspend the Chinese student who sent the emails. "I don't know why he wasn't arrested... the principal pushed for my arrest." She said a cop told her that if she didn't confess, she would have to spend time in prison with prostitutes and people with HIV. She couldn't drink water from a water fountain because it had another person's vomit, and although it was really cold, she could not use the blanket because it stank.

The New York Police Department is not responding to calls and an email seeking a response. Dayal later said that the incident would have no bearing on Indo-US relations. "This is an aberration... a wrongful act of local officials," he said. In addition to compensatory and punitive damages, Batra suggested that Mayor Bloomberg could perhaps give "a key to the City to Krittika as a token of heartfelt sorrow for the unbecoming pain inflicted upon her."