US cop detained in India for carrying bullets

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A New York City police officer has been detained in India on a weapons charge after authorities recovered three bullets he had accidentally packed in his luggage, Indian media reported on Saturday.

Officer Manny Encarnacion was arrested early last month while traveling in New Delhi, where he was visiting his wife. He’s been barred from leaving the country until the case is resolved, the Indian officials said.

New York Police Department Deputy Chief Kim Royster said his agency was working with the State Department to try to get the charges dropped so Encarnacion could return to the United States.

In a letter, Peter King asked Secretary of State John Kerry to look into the situation. The New York Republican called the arrest “an excessive act by the Indian government” and suggested it was payback for last year’s arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade for alleged visa fraud in New York.

Devyani Khobragade was a deputy consul general in New York when she was arrested in December near her children’s Manhattan school on charges that she overworked and underpaid her Indian housekeeper. The arrest shook US-Indian relations, with India removing concrete traffic barriers around the US Embassy and revoking diplomats’ ID cards. Khobragade maintained she was not guilty and also had immunity, but she complied with a Department of State request to leave the United States.

US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said she was aware of the reports of the officer’s arrest but had declined to comment on the specifics of the case because of privacy concerns.

Asked whether the United States was worried whether Americans were potential targets for retribution because of how the Indian diplomat was treated in New York, she responded, “I think we feel like we’ve moved past this and hope the Indians have as well. India is a very close partner.”

Encarnacion, 49, joined the NYPD in 2004 and is assigned to a Harlem precinct.

The officer had gone to the department firing range before he left for India and put the bullets in a coat pocket, according to police. He packed the coat for the trip, forgetting the ammo was there, police officials said.

Encarnacion’s next court date in India is April 17, US officials said.