Air India Case: Accused Says Victim 'Urinated On Seat', Woman Denies Allegation

Mishra is currently on a 14-day judicial remand, after Delhi court rejected the police request for custody.

A drunk passenger unzipped his pants and urinated on a female co-passenger in the business class of an Air India flight from New York to Delhi on 26 November 2022.

(Photo: Namita Chauhan/The Quint)

After 34-year-old Shankar Mishra on Friday, 13 January, shifted the blame to the victim, alleging that his co-passenger urinated on herself on an Air India flight in November and blamed him for it, the victim broke her silence on Saturday and said that the "allegations are completely false."

NDTV quoted the woman as saying, "The said allegations are also in complete contradiction and a complete volte-face of the statements and the pleaded case of the accused in his bail application."

She went on to say that instead of expressing remorse for the "utterly disgusting act committed by him, he has adopted a campaign of spreading misinformation and falsities with the intent of further harassing the victim."

What the accused had said: Senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mishra, alleged that the elderly woman has a "medical condition."

“I’m not the accused. There must be someone else. She herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate. It was not him. The seating system was such that no one could go to her seat. Her seat could only be approached from behind, and in any case the the urine could not reach to seat’s front area. Also, the passenger sitting behind the complainant did not make any such complain."

Ramesh Gupta to court, reported in The Indian Express

The case so far: Mishra is currently on a 14-day judicial remand, after a Delhi court rejected the police request for custody. On Wednesday, 11 January, Mishra's request for bail was rejected with the judge noting that accusations against him were "disgusting and repulsive."

The allegations: Mishra had allegedly urinated on a 70-year-old woman, while being under the influence of alcohol, on board an Air India flight in November.

Mishra was arrested in Bengaluru by the Delhi Police late on Friday night, 6 January.

The incident came under the spotlight after the complainant’s letter to the Tata Group was made public.