Air India 'pee-gate' case: 'I didn't urinate on complainant,' Shankar Mishra tells Delhi court

In a fresh twist to the mid-air urination incident on an Air India flight, the accused, 34-year-old Shankar Mishra, said on Friday that his co-passenger urinated on her own. 

The alleged incident had occurred on November 26 last year when a drunk Mishra walked up to the woman's seat in the business class on an Air India New York-New Delhi flight, exposed himself and urinated on her, said Delhi Police in its FIR. 

Shankar Mishra’s counsel told a Delhi sessions court on Friday that: "The complainant's seat was blocked. It wasn’t possible for him (Mishra) to go there. The woman has a problem of incontinence. She urinated on herself. She is a Kathak dancer, 80% of Kathak dancers have this issue."

The sessions court judge said, "It is not impossible to go from one side of the flight to the other. Sorry, but I have travelled as well. Anybody from any row can come around and go to any seat."

The judge asked for a diagram of the flight seating. 

The court was hearing Delhi Police's revision plea challenging magisterial court’s order of January 7 denying the custody of Shankar Mishra. The court granted liberty to Delhi Police to approach the magistrate again to seek police custody of Mishra with fresh grounds raised by them, while granting no police custody on Friday. 

The court said it's haring a revision petition and cannot decide on fresh grounds.

A Delhi court on Wednesday denied bail to Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on an elderly woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, calling the act ''utterly disgusting and repulsive''.

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

“The alleged act of accused of relieving himself upon the complainant is utterly disgusting and repulsive. The alleged act in itself is sufficient to outrage the modesty of any woman. Egregious conduct of the accused has shocked the civic consciousness and needs to be deprecated,” the judge said.

The alleged act in itself prima facie reflects the intention of the accused, she said, while declining the relief to Mishra, who is lodged in jail.