Air India pee-gate: 'She peed on herself... problem most kathak dancers have,' claims accused

Shankar Mishra, the accused in the Air India peegate case.

In a shocking turn of events, the accused of the Air India pee gate scandal Shankar Mishra has now claimed that the elderly woman “peed on herself” contrary to reports that he urinated on her in an inebriated state, News18 reported.

“She peed on herself as she suffers from a problem that most kathak dancers have,” Mishra’s lawyer told in response to a notice by the sessions court on an application by the Delhi Police requesting custody for questioning him.

Mishra’s counsel said that the woman’s “seat was blocked" and so it wasn’t possible for the accused to walk there. “When she realised what happened, she didn’t know what happened,” Mishra’s counsel said in a stunning allegation.

On November 26 last year, Shankar Mishra was on an Air India New York to Delhi flight in the business class when he got drunk, exposed himself and urinated on a 72-year-old co-passenger. The aggrieved woman wrote to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran recounting her horror as she listed where the cabin crew had faltered. Air India is run by the Tata Group.

She said the incident took place soon after lunch was served on the flight and after the lights were switched off. The drunk man, she said, walked to her seat, unzipped his pants and proceeded to urinate on her. He didn’t stop exposing himself even after the disgusting act, she recalled, adding that he left only after a co-passenger asked him to leave.

She then informed the cabin crew about the incident who then “verified that it smelled of urine” and sprayed disinfectant on her bag and shoes.

The elderly woman, who changed into a set of pyjamas and disposable footwear that the crew gave her, stood near the toilet of the aircraft for nearly 20 minutes since she did not want to return to her smelly and soiled seat, according to the report. She sat on the narrow crew seat for an hour before being asked to return to her own seat. She was later moved to another crew seat for the rest of the flight.

She was then told she would be given a wheelchair to clear customs at Delhi airport soonest but even that apparently took time.

“The wheelchair deposited me at a waiting area, where I waited for 30 minutes, and nobody came to get me. I finally had to clear customs on my own and collect the luggage by myself – all in Air India pyjamas and socks,” she wrote in her letter to Chandrasekaran.

A nationwide outrage followed after the incident came to light with a few more incidents being reported on unruly passengers on flight that caused the Directorate of Civil Aviation to issue show-cause notices.

An FIR was lodged, which had not been filed in the beginning after the accused allegedly requested the aggrieved passenger to not file a complaint as he had a family. Mishra also reportedly got his co-passengers’ belongings cleaned and also paid her Rs 15,000 as compensation which the woman returned.

Mishra, who was sacked as Vice President of the India chapter of American financial firm Wells Fargo, was sent to 14-day judicial remand on Saturday. His bail application was rejected four days later.