Air India bans Shankar Mishra for four months over urination incident

Shankar Mishra, the Air India passenger accused of urinating on a woman on a flight, has been banned from the airline for four months, ANI reported on Thursday.

According to the Delhi Police, Mishra on November 26 had walked to the woman’s seat in the business class section in a drunken state, unzipped his pants and urinated on her. Air India filed a police complaint over a month later on December 28, after which a case was filed against him.

Mishra was arrested by the Delhi Police from Bengaluru on January 7. A court in the national capital sent him to 14-day judicial remand, denying police custody.

Initially, the airline had banned Mishra from flying with it for 30 days. On January 4, Air India had said that it could only ban an unruly passenger for 30 days without consulting the civil aviation ministry, according to the Hindustan Times.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Air India said that an independent three-member internal committee headed by a former district judge concluded that Mishra was covered under the definition of an unruly passenger.

On account of the findings, he has been banned from the airline for four months, the spokesperson said.

Mishra denies allegations

On January 13, Mishra had refuted allegations against him before a Delhi court.

“I am not the accused...There must be someone else,” Mishra had told Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla. “It seems she herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate…”

Advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mishra, had said that owing to the seating arrangement on the flight, it was not possible for his client to go near the complainant’s seat.

Mishra’s claims are a complete departure from his earlier statements when he had told a magistrate court that his act was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the women’s modesty. He had also admitted that what he did was “revolting and appalling”.