'Woman peed on herself': Air India urination accused Shankar Mishra's new shocker in Delhi court
New Delhi/IBNS: In a shocking claim, the Mumbai man, who urinated on an elderly woman on an Air India flight seven weeks ago in an incident that triggered nationwide outrage, has told a Delhi court Friday that he did not do so and that it was his co-passenger who urinated on herself.
The stunning claim by the PeeGate accused Shankar Mishra came in response to a notice by the sessions court on an application by the Delhi Police requesting custody for questioning him.
Mishra had been sent to 14-day judicial remand on Saturday by a court that turned down the police's request for custody.
"The alleged act in itself is sufficient to outrage the modesty of any woman. The egregious conduct of the accused has shocked the civic consciousness and needs to be deprecated," the judge said on Wednesday.
During the bail hearing, Mishra's lawyers had made no reference to his latest claim of not urinating on the woman, arguing that his act "was not driven by sexual desire nor aimed at outraging the complainant's modesty".
At the hearing, the woman who complained against Mishra said she was being threatened by those close to the accused.
"I'm regularly receiving messages, threatening me. The accused's father sent me a message and said 'karma will hit you' and then deleted the message. They're sending me messages and deleting them. This needs to stop," her lawyers said.
Mishra was arrested last week after the accusations came to light more than a month after the incident in occurred on Nov 26.
He had been on the run from authorities for days and had been sacked by US banking giant Wells Fargo.
On Nov 26, a drunken Shankar Mishra urinated on an elderly woman in the business class of Air India's New York-New Delhi flight.
The woman said she was forced by the crew into accepting an apology from the man and later complained to N Chandrasekaran, chairperson of the Tata Group, which owns Air India.
Air India had not reported any of these incidents before they made headlines.
Later, facing flak the airline said it had failed to properly address the incident and was reviewing its policy on serving alcohol during flights.
"Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground, and is committed to taking action," Chief Executive Campbell Wilson said in a statement.