AI Urination Case: Shankar Mishra Says Woman Peed on Herself; Victim Calls It 'Completely False' | Timeline

Shankar Mishra, the man accused of “urinating” on an elderly woman co-passenger on a New York-Delhi Air India flight, told a Delhi court on Friday that he didn’t commit the act and accused the victim of relieving on herself as “she suffers from a problem that most kathak dancers have.”

Mishra’s lawyer said that the woman’s “seat was blocked”. “It wasn’t possible for him to walk from there,” he said. The woman urinated on herself due to a problem that many kathak dancers have, and “when she realised what happened, she didn’t know what happened”, the defence advocate told the court.

The victim’s legal team issued a strong rebuttal to claims made by Mishra’s counsel. “It has been brought to our knowledge that defamatory allegations are being made on part of the accused,” the victim’s lawyers said in a statement exclusively to CNN-News18. The lawyers termed the allegations as “completely false” and said the claims were defamatory, concocted and in sharp contrast to events.

Here’s a timeline of the incident

• Shankar Mishra, allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year.
• Delhi Police registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India. According to the FIR, shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off onboard AI 102 on November 26, 2022, the inebriated male passenger seated in business class seat 8A walked to the elderly woman’s seat, unzipped his pants and urinated on her.
• The case was filed under sections 294 (obscene act in public place), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under Aircraft Rules.
• According to the FIR, the accused begged the woman not to lodge a complaint against him, saying he was a family man and did not wish his wife and child to be affected by the incident.
• Delhi Police said Mishra switched off his phone and began tracking him. A lookout circular was issued against Mishra to prevent him from fleeing the country.
• Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a show cause notice to Air India saying prima facie it emerges that provisions related to the handling of unruly passengers were not complied with. It said Air India’s conduct appeared to be “unprofessional”.
• Mishra’s lawyers on January 6 stated that Mishra paid the complainant Rs 15,000 as compensation and got the complainant’s belongings cleaned. However, WhatsApp exchanges between the woman’s daughter and Mishra showed the family had returned the money.
• Mishra’s father, Shyam Mishra said that his son is “innocent and that he cannot do such a thing to a woman his mother’s age”.
• Details of the FIR revealed the woman had informed the crew that she did not want to see her tormentor’s face and was “stunned” when the offender was brought before her and he “started crying and profusely apologising”.
• US financial services company Wells Fargo, Mishra’s employer, terminated him, saying the allegations were “deeply disturbing”.
• Delhi Police arrested Mishra from Bengaluru on January 7 after he was traced through technical surveillance. Bengaluru police had assisted Delhi police in arresting Mishra from Sanjay Nagar area in the city. He was staying at his relative’s in Bengaluru. His last location was found in Bangalore on January 3 after which he switched off his mobile phone, police said, adding Mishra was using a taxi to travel to Bangalore.
• During interrogation, Mishra told police that he does not remember anything about the incident since he was sleepy. It was only when other passengers on the flight told him about his act, he apologised to the victim, officials had said on January 7. Mishra also admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol. He claimed that while travelling in the US, he and his friend took turns driving a car and he did not get proper sleep.
• A magisterial court sent Mishra to 14-day judicial remand on January 7, denying police his custody.
• Air India apologised for the incident, issued show cause notices to four cabin crew and one pilot of its New York-Delhi flight and de-rostered them pending investigation. The carrier also said the policy of serving alcohol on flights is being reviewed.
• The airline’s CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said that “we fell short of addressing this situation the way we should have”. He said the airline will “review and repair every process to prevent or address any incidents of such unruly nature”.
• Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said speedy action will be taken in the case. “Further action will be taken speedily after the completion of the ongoing proceedings,” Scindia told reporters on January 7.
• A US-based doctor who was seated next to the accused spoke out about the November 26 incident on January 8, alleging the flight crew showed “no compassion” and failed in their responsibility on several counts as they made the woman talk to the man after his “indecent exposure” and she was made to go back to her soiled seat
• Police on Tuesday recorded the statements of two crew members of the Air India flight
• A Delhi sessions court on Wednesday denied bail to Mishra while calling his act “utterly disgusting and repulsive”. Metropolitan Magistrate Komal Garg said the act has shocked the civic consciousness of people and needed to be deprecated.
• During the arguments on Wednesday, Mishra’s counsel said his act was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the complainant’s modesty.
• The complainant’s counsel claimed she was being threatened. “I’m regularly receiving messages, threatening me. Accused’s father sent me a message and said ‘karma will hit you’ and then deleted the message. They’re sending me messages and deleting it. This needs to stop… Air India instead of separating the accused and complainant, tried to mediate the crime,” her counsel told the court on Wednesday.
• The Mishra’s lawyer, however, contested the claim of threat made by the complainant. “Her (the victim woman’s) son-in-law, a New York-based professor, wrote me a mail saying I was to pay the full plane fare. I had paid for dry cleaning. But after the mail from son-in-law, the money (the accused had paid by way of compensation) was returned,” Mishra’s counsel said.
• Delhi Police sought Mishra’s fresh custodial interrogation on Thursday. Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla heard the application seeking revision of an order passed on January 7 by a metropolitan magistrate sending Mishra to 14-day judicial remand while denying police his custody.
• The counsel for Mishra on Friday said the accused did not urinate on the woman. The counsel made the submission before Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla while arguing against a Delhi police petition seeking revision of an order passed by a magisterial court denying police his custodial interrogation.
• The judge disposed of the application, saying the submissions made before him did not seem to have been made in front of the Metropolitan Magistrate. He said police can approach the magisterial court with its application afresh.

(with inputs from agencies)

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