NEW DELHI, April 13: India on Thursday publicly rebuked its ambassador to New Zealand after he defied an order to return home and accused him of spreading ‘scurrilous information’.

High Commissioner Harish Kumar Dogra was recalled after reportedly antagonising New Zealand’s Indian community by refusing travel visas to India.

But he has refused to return to India, and New Zealand newspapers said he has accused his foreign secretary Shyam Saran of bringing shame on the country.

“Circulation of such scurrilous material is not becoming of a senior member of the Indian Foreign Service,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.

“The Ministry of External Affairs will deal with matter in accordance with its well established procedures.” —AFP