AI pee row: Ban based on incorrect understanding of aircraft, claims Mishra

The airline on Jan 19 banned Mishra from flying for a period of 4 months

Disagreeing with the findings of the internal inquiry into the alleged incident on board an Air India flight where he was accused of urinating on an elderly woman, Shankar Mishra said on Friday the four-month flying ban on him is based on an incorrect understanding of the layout of the aircraft.

In a statement issued through his lawyers, Mishra said he was in the process of appealing the decision in accordance with the applicable rules.

Mishra was drunk when he allegedly urinated on an elderly female co-passenger in the business class of an Air India New York-Delhi flight on November 26 last year. In a surprise twist, he later claimed the woman had urinated on herself.

The airline on Thursday banned Mishra from flying for a period of 4 months while saying an independent three-member internal committee found him to be covered under the definition of 'unruly passenger'.

“We would particularly like to point that the Internal Inquiry Committee’s ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the Aircraft. When the Committee could not find an adequate explanation as to how the accused could have urinated on the complainant sitting on seat 9A without also affecting the passenger on Seat 9C, it has erroneously gone on to assume that there was a seat 9B in the business class in the aircraft,” the statement issued by lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai said.

“Based on these unfounded and clearly incorrect conjectures, the Committee has essentially manufactured a possibility that the accused had committed the alleged act,” it said.

The statement added the conclusion of the finding of the panel is particularly surprising considering that there were two aviation experts on the committee.

“While we respect the authority and mandate of the Internal Inquiry Committee, we disagree with their findings and are already in the process of appealing this decision in accordance with the DGCA CAR for Unruly Passengers,” the statement read.

Mishra is currently in judicial custody in a criminal case registered by the Delhi Police for allegedly exposing himself before the victim woman in a drunken state and urinating on her.

The statement issued by the lawyers emphasised that Mishra was innocent and has full faith in the judicial system of the country.

On January 11, a Delhi court had denied bail to him while calling the act "utterly disgusting and repulsive".

Metropolitan Magistrate Komal Garg had said the act has shocked the civic consciousness of people and needed to be deprecated.

During the arguments, his counsel had told the court his act was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the complainant's modesty.