Air India has faced severe criticism in the last week after it came to light that a male co-passenger urinated on a woman during a flight from New York to Delhi on November 26, 2022. Both of them were flying business class.
As the incident made headlines, Air India said on Wednesday that it had filed a police complaint and that the accused had been put on a 30-day flight ban by the airline.
The woman in her complaint said that the incident took place soon after lunch was served and lights were dimmed. The accused allegedly walked up to her seat, unzipped his pants and urinated on her.
NDTV reported that while the woman wrote to Air India group chairman, N Chandrasekharan a day after the incident took place in November, Air India filed the FIR only on January 4. This was also after the incident was reported by several media outlets and became public information.
The woman in her complaint said that the incident took place soon after lunch was served and lights were dimmed. The accused allegedly walked up to her seat, unzipped his pants and urinated on her.
Terming it the "most traumatic flight" experience, the woman said that the accused stood beside her exposing his private parts until another passenger asked him to return to his seat. Her complaint also highlights the lack of cooperation from the flight crew and the pilot who failed to address her grievance. She wasn't given a new seat and was made to face the offender even though she said she did not want to see him.
What did the woman say in her complaint?
Journalist Barkha Dutt shared the complaint filed by the woman giving the details of the incident. "He unzipped his pants and urinated on me and kept standing there until the person sitting next to me tapped him and told him to go back to his seat, at which point he staggered back to his seat," the woman said in her statement.
The woman said she immediately informed the flight crew about it. "My clothes, shoes and bag were soaked in urine," she said, adding that the bag contained her travel documents and some money as well.
The woman said that the crew gave her a change of pajamas and socks, and sprayed disinfectant on her bag, but wasn't allowed to get her seat changed even though it reeked of urine. "I asked the staff for a change of seat, but was told no seat was available," the woman said in her complaint.
While another passenger tried to help her to get her seat changed, she was informed that the pilot had vetoed the decision.
"After I had been standing there for 20 minutes, a senior flight staff offered me the small crew seat used by the airline staff, where I sat for about two hours. I was then asked to return to the soiled seat," she said. Though the staff had spread sheets on her seat, it was still damp and smelt of urine, she said.
The woman said that the crew spoke to the accused, after he started to sober up, and told her that he wanted to apologise. However, she refused the offer and said she wanted him to be arrested. "I stated clearly that I did not want to interact with him or see his face, and that all I wanted was for him to be arrested on arrival," she said.
Despite this, the offender was brought in front of her against her wishes and was made to sit opposite to her in the crew seats, she alleged. "I was stunned when he started crying and profusely apologising to me, begging me not to lodge a complaint against him because he is a family man and did not want his wife and child to be affected by this incident," she wrote.
Accusing the crew, the woman said she was already in a distraught state and was "disoriented' further when she was made to face the offender. "I found it difficult to insist on his arrest or to press charges against him," she said.
The staff told her that she would be assisted for a "comfortable" exit from the airport and would be helped with baggage collection. She was taken on a wheelchair from the plane to the terminal where she waited for 30 minutes for another wheelchair to take her further. "The ground staff never came to assist me," she alleged.
She said she demanded the airlines reimburse her for her soiled bag and shoes, they said they had nothing to do with this and that the accused should pay. "They got my phone number which they later passed on to the offender for payment of my shoes and dry cleaning," she wrote, However, she returned the money to him.
The man accused of urinating on the woman on the New York-New Delhi flight in November has been identified as Shankar Mishra, a Mumbai-based businessman, who was in an inebriated condition at the time of the incident, NDTV reported.
Mishra works as a vice president for Wells Fargo, a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in California, USA, according to the Hindustan Times. He has been charged with sexual harassment and obscenity and the Delhi Police are on the look-out for him.