The Bangalore police have written to the Union government requesting information on the status of Pascal Mazurier, the 39-year-old French diplomat, accused of raping his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Additional Commissioner (Law and Order) T. Suneel Kumar told The Hindu here on Saturday that the police would proceed against Mr. Mazurier only after it was officially confirmed to them in writing that he did not enjoy diplomatic immunity.
However, sources in the External Affairs Ministry maintain that the question of “diplomatic immunity” does not arise. For, Mr. Mazurier only holds an official passport, and secondly, the alleged crime was not committed in “the line of duty.”
Mr. Mazurier, a deputy head of chancery in the Consulate of France here, was let off on Friday evening, after preliminary interrogation and physical examination, on the basis of a written undertaking submitted by Vincent Caumontat, Deputy Consul, head of Chancery at the consulate.
The complainant, Suja Jones Mazurier, 37, has written to the External Affairs and Home Ministries requesting them to ensure that her husband faces trial in India despite his “diplomatic status.”
The lawyer representing the victim, Geetha Menon, questioned the procedure of an assurance letter as the basis for letting off a rape accused.
Further, she alleged, the mother had been put through a series of traumatic experiences since she filed her complaint. Her child was made to go through multiple examinations in a government hospital on Friday, despite her having submitted a detailed medical examination conducted by the Collaborative Child Response Unit of Baptist Hospital within hours of the alleged rape.
On Saturday, she was again called to the hospital for an HIV test of all her three children.
Ms. Menon also said police were “insensitive.” On Friday evening, when Mr. Mazurier was let off, she was asked to travel home in the same car with him. She is living at her residence in Vasanthnagar under police protection, while he is at an undisclosed location under the “care and protection” of Mr. Caumontat.
Ms. Mazurier's children hold French citizenship. Sources close to her said she was deeply anxious that if Mr. Mazurier was allowed to leave the country, the French government might take the children away from her. There was also the question of her financial security, given that all the family's finances are controlled by him.
