Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was treated very well: Preet Bharara

"I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity," she wrote.

Khobragade was arrested by the department of state's diplomatic security team and then handed over to US marshals in New York.

The US Marshals Service confirmed on Tuesday that it had strip-searched Khobragade and placed her in a cell with other female defendants. It described the measures as "standard arrestee intake procedures." It could not immediately confirm whether she underwent a cavity search.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said "this isolated episode is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful ties" that the US and India share.

India retaliated against US diplomats with measures that include revoking diplomat ID cards that brought certain privileges, demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in US embassy households and withdrawing import licenses that allowed the commissary at the US embassy to import alcohol and food.

On Wednesday, dozens of people protested outside the US embassy, saying Khobragade's treatment was an insult to Indian women.