Air India urinating incident: Accused tells court he didn’t pee on complainant

Counsel of Shankar Mishra told the judge that the complainant urinated on herself as she has bladder issues

Shankar Mishra, accused for peeing over an elderly woman on an Air India flight | File Photo | Photo Credit: AP

In a strange twist, the lawyers of Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on an elderly woman onboard an Air India flight, told a Delhi court on Friday that their client never peed on the complainant. They further alleged that the woman “herself urinated”.

Making the submissions in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla, the counsel of the accused, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, maintained that his client is innocent and is being subjected to “harsh media trial”.

“My client is innocent. It seems the complainant herself urinated as she is suffering from some disease... which several Bharatnatyam dancers seem to suffer from. She too is a Bharatnatyam dancer,” the counsel told the court.

He further argued that the woman first filed a complaint demanding refund. That was done by the airline. He also stressed how police went all the way to Bengaluru to arrest his client and declared him an absconder. Mr. Mishra lost his job due to mere allegations, advocate Gupta told the court.

The judge, who was hearing the matter against a police petition seeking revision of the order passed by a magisterial court denying police the custodial interrogation of Mr. Mishra, disposed of the application saying the submissions made in the court on Friday were not made before the previous judge.

Judge Bhalla further added that the police can approach the Metropolitan Magisterial court with a fresh application.

During the bail hearing of Mr. Mishra before the Metropolitan Magistrate Komal Garg on Wednesday, the counsel of the accused had made written submissions that the alleged act, though obscene, cannot come under section 354 of IPC since the intention to outrage modesty was absent on part of the accused.

The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested Mr. Mishra, 34, for allegedly urinating on an elderly co-traveller aboard a New York-New Delhi Air India flight in November. The airline’s CEO Campbell Wilson had expressed regret over the incident and the airline’s poor handling of it.

Mr. Mishra told the police during his interrogation that he did not remember anything about the incident as he had “blacked out” during the flight.