‘Utterly disgusting’: Complainant in Air India case after Shankar Mishra's claim
On Friday, Shankar Mishra had claimed in a Delhi session court that he did not commit the offence and alleged that the complainant herself could have peed on her own seat.
The Air India “urinating” case complainant has slammed accused Shankar Mishra for his latest claims, saying it is being done with the intent to “spread misinformation” and further “harassment”, news agency ANI reported.
On Friday, Shankar Mishra had claimed in a Delhi session court that he did not commit the offence and alleged that the complainant herself could have peed on her own seat.
The complainant through her lawyer Ankur Mehindro stated that “it has been brought to our knowledge that certain scurrilous and defamatory allegations have been made on behalf of the accused during a court hearing”.
"Accused, instead of being remorseful for the utterly disgusting act committed by him, has adopted a campaign of spreading misinformation and falsities with the intent of further harassing the Victim," the woman complainant said in a statement.
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“Needless to state, the allegations are completely false and concocted and by their very nature are disparaging and derogatory. 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,” the statement added.
In the sessions court, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mishra, accused the police and the press of turning the case into a joke.
The claim by Mishra's lawyer, made for the first time since the sordid event unfolded on an Air India New York-New Delhi flight on November 26 last year, flies in the face of denunciation of the accused by some of the co-passengers and even a string of WhatsApp exchanges he had with the victim woman which suggested the unsavoury incident indeed took place.
“I'm not the accused. There must be someone else. It seems she herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate which several 'kathak dancers' seem to suffer from. It was not me. 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 urine could not reach to seat's front area. Also, the passenger sitting behind the complainant did not make any such complaint,” the defence advocate told the judge.
The lawyer's charges were dismissed by other kathak dancers. The generalisation has 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 per cent 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.
Rashmi Vaidialingam, a lawyer and a Kuchipudi dancer, said, “This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard. How can someone think of something like this? There must be a medical check-up to confirm, and it seems like the man was under the influence of alcohol and couldn’t control himself. Shame on the passengers, crew and all the eyewitnesses who are not reacting strongly to this incident. This is what happens when you live in a patriarchal society. The man and his lawyer have come up with a ridiculously defensive statement. Dancers always have control over their bodies, and what does the lawyer know about this?”
The counsel for the accused 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)
