Following Air India’s four-month flying ban on Shankar Mishra, who allegedly peed on an elderly woman co-passenger mid-flight, his legal team has said that they disagree with the committee’s findings which are based on an “incorrect understanding of the layout of the aircraft.”
Mishra’s advocates Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai said that they are already in the process of appealing this decision in accordance with the DGCA CAR for Unruly Passengers.
“We would particularly like to point out that the Internal Inquiry Committee’s ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the Aircraft,” they said in a statement.
Mishra’s advocates alleged that as the committee couldn’t find an adequate explanation for how he could’ve urinated on the woman sitting on seat 9A without affecting the passenger seated in 9C, they assumed that he stood on “imaginary seat” 9B.
“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 and imagined that the accused could have stood at this imaginary seat and urinated on the complainant on seat 9A. However, there is no seat 9B in the business class on the craft – only seats 9A and 9C,” the statement said.
Based on these unfounded and clearly incorrect conjectures, the Committee has essentially manufactured a possibility that the accused had committed the alleged act, they said.
“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,” his advocates said.
“This finding is particularly surprising considering that there were two aviation experts on the committee. We maintain the innocence of the accused and have full faith in the judicial system of the country,” they added.
Air India on Thursday banned Mishra from flying with the airline for four months after an internal committee determined that he was an unruly passenger who allegedly urinated on a co-passenger.
“The independent 3-member Internal Committee under the chairmanship of ex-District Judge has concluded that Shankar Mishra is covered under the definition of “unruly passenger” and banned from flying for 4 months as per relevant provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements,” an Air India spokesperson said on Thursday.
Mishra, who allegedly urinated on a co-passenger in an inebriated state on a New Delhi-bound international flight on November 26 last year, is currently in judicial custody after he was arrested by Delhi Police in Bengaluru on January 6.
Delhi Police had registered the First Information Report (FIR) against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India under sections 354, 509, and 510 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 23 of the Indian Aircraft Act.
(With inputs from ANI)
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