A woman, who had accused her co-passenger Shankar Mishra of urinating on her on an Air India flight, on Saturday rejected the claims made by him that she seems to have urinated on herself, saying these are "completely false and concocted and by their very nature are disparaging and derogatory".
Mishra's counsel, while arguing against a police petition seeking revision of an order passed by a magisterial court refusing his custodial interrogation, on Friday claimed that he did not commit the offence, and that she herself urinated.
"The allegations are completely false and concocted and by their very nature are disparaging and derogatory. The said allegations are also in complete contradiction and a complete volte face of the statements and the pleaded case of the accused in his bail application," advocate Ankur Mahindro, representing the complainant, said in a statement.
He added, "The accused, instead of being remorseful for the utterly disgusting act committed by him, has adopted a campaign of spreading misinformation and falsities with the intent of further harassing the victim."
Mishra's counsel had told the court that the complainant was suffering from some disease related to prostate, which several 'kathak dancers' seem to suffer from.
"I (Mishra) am not the accused. There must be someone else. It seems she herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate, which several 'kathak dancers' seem to suffer from. It was not him. The seating system was such that no one could go to her seat. Her seat could only be approached from behind, and in any case the urine could not reach to seat's front area. Also, the passenger sitting behind the complainant did not make any such complain," senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, appearing for Mishra, told the judge.
The claim by his lawyer, made for the first time since the sordid event unfolded on an Air India New York-New Delhi flight on November 26 last year, flies in the face of denunciation of the accused by some of the co-passengers and even a string of WhatsApp exchanges he had with the victim woman which suggested the unsavoury incident indeed took place.
Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla disposed of the police application saying police can approach the magisterial court with its application afresh.
Mishra was accused of having exposed himself before the victim woman in a drunken state and urinated on her. Delhi Police registered an FIR against him on January 4 on the complaint of the woman.
