Child Welfare activists in Bangalore on Monday protested outside the French consulate demanding the arrest of an embassy official for the alleged rape of his 3-year-old daughter.

The official holds a service passport and not a diplomatic passport, and doesn't enjoy diplomatic immunity sources in India say. This means that the police can take action against the official. It was first thought that due to his diplomatic status, authorities in Bangalore were finding it hard to convict Pascal Mazurier.

The diplomat is, Pascal Mazurier, 39, the deputy head of chancery, French consulate, in Bangalore. His wife Suja Jones filed a complaint with High Grounds police on Thursday, and doctors confirmed the incident had taken place.

The French envoy's wife is an Indian citizen, and says that with the help of a Bangalore-based NGO, she alerted the police to the incident after her maid told her that her daughter was being sexually abused.

She took the child to a private hospital at Hebbal which confirmed the sexual assault, said Karnataka Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KCPCR) Chairperson Nina Nayak.

Ms Jones has approached the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and the ministry of external affairs (MEA), requesting that her husband face trial in India regardless of the diplomatic immunity he enjoys.

"A case of child abuse has been registered. We are investigating ... we have interrogated a few people. We have not arrested anybody," said Ravikant Gowda, DCP, Bangalore Police.

"By now, he should have been arrested and his passport seized. The medical examination of the child confirms sexual abuse so he does not deserve diplomatic immunity," said the lawyer for the wife of the accused French envoy.

The French consulate has declined to comment on the matter.