On Friday, January 13, Shankar Mishra, is accused of urinating on a female co-passenger in an inebriated state while onboard Air India flight AI-102 on November 26, travelling from New York to Delhi refuted the allegations. He even claimed that the complainant who is an elderly woman suffers from ‘incontinence’.
Mishra told a Delhi sessions court that he did not urinate on the complainant woman and that she urinated on herself.
Mishra’s counsel Advocate Ramesh Gupta went a step ahead and called the investigation a ‘joke’ and claimed that the complainant woman’s seat was blocked and it was not possible for him (Shankar Mishra) to go there. Gupta further said that the complainant who is a Kathak dancer urinated on herself as 80 per cent of Kathak dancers have this problem.
“The woman has a problem with urinary incontinence. She urinated on herself. She is a Kathak dancer, 80 per cent of kathak dancers have this issue,” the accused’s counsel reportedly said.
Her seat could only be approached from behind, and the urine could not reach the seat’s front space in any case. “In addition, the passenger sitting behind the complainant made no such complaint,” Mishra’s counsel told the court.
In simple terms, urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine. It occurs when the bladder muscles that control urine flow contract or relax involuntarily, resulting in leaks or unrestrained urination.
While responding to the claims made by Mishra’s counsel, the sessions court Judge said, “it is not impossible to go from one side of the flight to the other. Sorry, but I have also travelled. Anybody from any row could very well come around and go to any seat.”
The court also sought a diagram of the flight seating.
Accused Mishra’s counsel was arguing before a sessions court bench hearing Delhi Police’s revision petition challenging a magisterial court’s order denying Mishra’s custody on January 7. On Saturday, Delhi’s Patiala House Court sent Shankar Mishra to 14-day judicial custody. The court had denied Mishra’s custody to the police and instead agreed to judicial custody.