Indian diplomat's daughter sues New York City

The daughter of an Indian diplomat has filed a $1.5 million suit against New York City over her arrest on cyberbullying charges - but her suit doesn’t demand the key to the city that her lawyer had asked for.

Krittika Biswas, daughter of Debashish Biswas, vice consul in the Indian consulate general here, claims in court papers that the investigation that led to her arrest in school was a “sham,” lacking any real evidence.

The 118-page lawsuit filed Monday in the Manhattan district court also alleges that the honours student was busted on trumped-up charges due to a conspiracy of “race-based animus...against persons of Southeast Asian Indian descent.”

The suit, seeking at least $500,000 in compensatory and a million dollars in punitive damages, also impleads 10 others, including New York City’s department of education, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the principal and the teacher concerned of Biswas’ school.

Biswas was locked up and suspended from John Bowne High School in Queens last February after she was accused of sending “offensive and sexually threatening” e-mails to her teachers.

But the charges were dropped after a male classmate was fingered as the real culprit.
Biswas’ lawyer Ravi Batra said last year that getting a key to the city from Mayor Michael Bloomberg could make it clear “that diplomats are welcome in New York".

A spokesperson for the city Law Department cited by the New York Post said officials hadn’t yet been served the suit.