Air India bans Shankar Mishra for 4 months over pee-gate

The airline, which had announced a ban on 30 days after the incident had come to the limelight, has said that Shankar Mishra is banned from travelling in Air India for four months.

New Delhi, Jan 19: Air India has banned Shankar Mishra, who is accused of urinating on a passenger, for four months, ANI reported citing officials from the airline.

"The independent 3-member Internal Committee under the chairmanship of ex-District Judge has concluded that Shankar Mishra is covered under definition of "unruly passenger" & banned from flying for 4 months as per relevant provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements," the news agency quoted Air India spokesperson in a tweet.

The passenger has already been put on the airline's "No Fly List". Air India has shared a copy of the Internal Committee report with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and will also be intimating other airlines operating in the country, the spokesperson added.

Mishra allegedly urinated on the woman, a senior citizen, in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year. However, a case was filed on January 4 based on a complaint given by the woman to Air India.

An FIR was filed under sections 354, 509, and 510 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 23 of the Indian Aircraft Act. Both the accused and the victim are from outside Delhi. After the issue came to limeight, Air India had banned him for 30 days.

He was arrested on January 6 in Bengaluru and the next day he was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court.

However, Mishra had tried to settle the issue before she filed a complaint. According to a PTI report, Shankar Mishra had exchanged messages with her after the unsavoury incident and his lawyers claimed on Friday he even paid her Rs 15,000 as compensation and got her belongings cleaned. However, WhatsApp exchanges between the woman's daughter and Mishra that emerged on Friday showed the family had returned money.

In a statement issued through his lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai, Mishra said he had got the woman's clothes and bags cleaned on November 28 and the same were delivered to her on November 30. "The Whatsapp messages between the accused and the lady clearly show that the accused had got the clothes and bags cleaned on November 28 and the same were delivered on November 30.

As he was apologetic about the incident, she had decided not to file a complaint, but her family members insisted on lodging a complaint.

In a surprise U-turn, Shankar Mishra told a Delhi court that he did not commit the offensive act. "I'm not the accused. There must be someone else. She herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate. It was not him. 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 the urine could not reach to seat's front area. Also, the passenger sitting behind the complainant did not make any such complain," defence advocate told court.

However, the woman rejected the claims made by him that she seems to have urinated on herself, saying these are "completely false and concocted and by their very nature are disparaging and derogatory".