India summons Saudi envoy in Nepalese maids' rape case

India on Thursday summoned the Saudi Arabian envoy and sought the country's cooperation in connection with the probe against its diplomat who is accused of raping and torturing his two Nepalese domestic helps at his official residence near the national capital.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it had summoned the Saudi ambassador to the Foreign Office this morning and clearly conveyed to him that the police in Gurgaon, 25 km from the Indian capital, need to record the statement of the accused diplomat in the case.

"MEA chief of protocol called in Saudi ambassador today, conveyed request of Haryana Police for cooperation of embassy in the case of two Nepali citizens," Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Highly placed sources said that India is under pressure from Nepal to act on the case against the Saudi diplomat who has currently left his home in Gurgaon and moved in to the Saudi Embassy in the national capital.

"The diplomat has not yet been arrested as he enjoys diplomatic immunity. But India may ask Saudi Arabia to waive off the diplomat 's immunity and in case that request is turned down, it could expel him from the country," the sources said.

The two Nepalese domestic helps, who were rescued from the diplomat's flat in a posh condominium in Gurgaon late Monday night, have accused the diplomat and his friends of repeated sexual assaults and torture.

"We were raped and brutalised by a lot of men who would keep coming to the flat, whose language we never understood," one of the women told the media. Both of them have returned to their home country after testifying before a magistrate. Endi