New Delhi, Oct. 24: Two ministries have been locked in disagreement for over six months on the diplomatic immunity foreigners working in embassies and international agencies enjoy, after a Unicef employee accused her boss of sexual harassment.

The women and child development ministry wants the immunity to be subject to “case-by-case” scrutiny if allegations of a criminal offence come up. The external affairs ministry, though, is learnt to be opposed to the suggestion.

A 44-year-old who worked in the communications department had in March accused Unicef India’s head Cecelio Adorna of attempted rape and molestation in a police complaint. “I was so traumatised that my blood pressure shot up, and I suffered a haemorrhage in my right eye for which I had to be bed-ridden for five months,” the victim said today.

The police, however, did not register an FIR against Adorna, a Filipino national who they said was beyond their reach. The victim wrote to the National Commission for Women, which sent the complaint to the women’s ministry. The ministry wrote to the external affairs ministry in April asking for Adorna’s immunity to be scrapped.

Sources said the external affairs ministry had written back saying they would consider the proposal but dropped enough hints that a case-by-case evaluation of immunity would not be “feasible”.

Unicef’s India spokesperson, Augustine Veliath, was unreachable.