‘Why another Air India woman flyer wasn’t enraged?': Shankar Mishra's advocate

In the sessions court, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Shankar Mishra, accused the police and the press of turning the case into a joke.

In a new twist to the alleged ‘urination’ incident on a New York-Delhi Air India flight in November last year, accused Shankar Mishra told a Delhi court on Friday he did not commit the offensive act and that the complainant, a woman co-passenger, seems to have urinated on herself.

Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on a woman passenger on an Air India flight. (PTI file)

Later, Mishra’s advocate Ishane Sharma told news agency ANI that there is a lack of witnesses to the incident and the case came to light only when the woman complainant had claimed herself about the happening.

Sharma also questioned why the other co-passenger, a woman, sitting next to the complainant wasn't affected.

“The woman (victim) was sitting on 9A and there was another woman sitting next to her. They claim that he (Shankar Mishra) urinated in such a way that the woman next to her wasn't at all affected,” ANI quoted Sharma as saying.

“How is that possible, how is the other woman not enraged? This logic fails basic physics and we have been saying this from the start. There have not been any old grudges between the both. What was alleged does not make sense,” Mishra’s advocate added.

“There is a lack of witnesses, the case came to light only when the woman had claimed herself about the happening,” she further said.

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)