Dogra gets 10 days to leave N Zealand

Ex-envoy Harish Dogra has been given a special 10-day visa to put his affairs in order and leave the country.

Harish Dogra, India's top diplomat in New Zealand, who has been sacked and ordered home, was on Monday given 10 days to leave the country, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

HT Image

The spokesperson said his successor, KP Ernest, until now a joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, has arrived in Wellington and is scheduled to present his formal credentials to Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright on Wednesday.

She further said Dogra, whose diplomatic accreditation was revoked last week after he had refused orders from New Delhi to go home, had been given a special 10-day visa to put his affairs in order and leave the country.

Dogra, who was India's high commissioner to New Zealand, has been resisting demands to go home since March 1 and on Friday turned away a removal van sent to collect his personal possessions from the official residence.