‘Pee Man’s legal team should also be tried for…’: Mahua Moitra on Air India case

Advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Shankar Mishra in the case, pleaded not guilty in a Delhi court claiming that woman had urinated upon herself.

Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra on Saturday blasted the Air India urination case accused Shankar Mishra’s counsel for claiming in the court that the woman complainant had a problem with “incontinence” and urinated on herself.

Delhi police arrested Shankar Mishra, the passenger who urinated on a senior citizen on the New York-Delhi flight, from Bengaluru and produced him at a Patiala House court. (AP)

Advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mishra in the case, pleaded not guilty in a Delhi court claiming that woman had urinated upon herself. In the his words, the woman is a Kathak dancer, and “80% of Kathak dancers have this issue”.

Mahua Moitra said in a tweet that the claim by Mishra's lawyer will “go down in legal history as one of the craziest defences.” The Lok Sabha member also called for a trial of Mishra's legal team under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for “outraging modesty for making such insinuations.”

“This has to go down in legal history as one of the craziest defences. Think Pee Man’s legal team should also be tried under IPC sections for outraging modesty for making such insinuations,” Mahua Moitra said.

The tweet has since been deleted.

This generalisation has also enraged many exponents of classical Indian dances, across the country.

“It is an unfortunate case and one of the most bizarre reasons I have heard that 80% of kathak dancers have such problems,” said Kathak exponent, Padma Shri Shovana Narayan. “In Shankar Mishra’s case, a woman’s modesty is compromised, and this is absolutely wrong. We must sympathise with the woman,” she added.

Mishra is accused of urinating on a fellow passenger on an Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26. An FIR was filed against him in Delhi on January 4 and he was arrested on January 6 from Bengaluru. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody on January 7.

On Friday, the court allowed the Delhi police to move a fresh application seeking police custody of Mishra as new submissions were made by the police before court.