Shankar Mishra, who in an inebriated condition allegedly urinated on his woman co-passenger on board an Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year, has approached Delhi’s Patiala House court seeking a regular bail in the case. The fresh plea challenges the order of a magistrate court, which had denied him bail while observing that his act was “disgusting and repulsive”.
Mishra’s plea, filed through his lawyer Neeraj Gupta, is listed before additional sessions judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla for hearing on January 27.
“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,” metropolitan magistrate Komal Garg had said while denying bail to Mishra.
In its order dated January 11, the court had said, “Egregious conduct of the accused has shocked the civic consciousness and needs to be deprecated.”
It was also noted that the accused had failed to join the investigation even after a notice under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure. “Therefore, the conduct of the accused does not inspire confidence,” the judge had stated.
It further said Mishra had tried contacting the victim and the possibility of him influencing the witnesses could not be ruled out.
During the course of hearing, advocate Manu Sharma along with advocates Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai representing Mishra had told the court that there was no sexual intent towards the woman, who went through this unfortunate incident.
“All offences are mostly bailable in nature,” Sharma said while also adding that his client was already bearing the consequences of the case.
“I have been sacked from a respectable job… I’ll also open the argument that I am not a flight risk,” he said on behalf of Mishra.
Responding to the arguments, the victim’s counsel argued that the incident was reported on November 28, but due to his (Mishra) influence a complaint was not registered.
“The father of the accused is sending me messages and is deleting it. He writes ‘Karma will hit you back’ and then deletes it,” the complainant said through her lawyer.
Rebutting the submissions, Sharma said, “The son-in-law wrote an email to Air India for a refund of the full amount. Those talks failed on December 19 and, on the same day, the money I sent for drycleaning was returned.”
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation this month imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Air India as well as suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight for three months.
Mishra was also banned by the airline for a duration of four months. This has been applicable from January 18 and is over and above the one-month ban implemented by the airline on December 20.
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