Following reports on the arrest of New-York based Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade (39) last week, which quoted unnamed sources saying that she was “detained with sex workers and drug addicts,” and “subjected to strip and cavity searches like an ordinary criminal,” the U.S. Marshals Service has confirmed that she was indeed strip-searched and “placed in a cell with other female defendants awaiting court proceedings.”

However in doing so, the USMS said, “standard arrestee intake procedures were followed” as for the general prisoner population in the Southern District of New York.

While declining to take a position on whether, as protesting Indian officials have suggested, Ms. Khobragade’s arrest and treatment was unjustified, the USMS said in a statement that it had reviewed her detention procedure and “has determined that [it] handled Khobragade’s intake and detention in accordance with USMS Policy Directives and Protocols.”

Yet, it appeared certain that no special treatment had been accorded to Ms. Khobragade while she was under detention, as the USMS also noted that she had been placed in “the available and appropriate cell.”

The USMS added that unless there was a “special risk or separation order” prisoners were typically placed in general population.

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