The couple said from 24 November to 9 December, they were kept under constant surveillance through phones and were instructed not to disconnect and to keep their phones charged.

US ambassador Sergio Gor: “I come to this remarkable nation with profound respect and a clear mission: to take the partnership between our two nations to the next level.”

The Union IT Ministry has refuted a Reuters report which claimed that the government is proposing to force smartphone manufacturers to share source code and make several software changes as part of a raft of security measures.