Delhi Police Saturday arrested Shankar Mishra, 34, who allegedly urinated on a co-passenger in an inebriated condition onboard an Air India flight. Mishra, who was arrested from Bengaluru and brought to Delhi, was on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi last November when the alleged incident occurred.
Mishra, an employee of US financial services giant Wells Fargo, was sacked Friday in light of the incident. The company, announcing his termination through a statement, said it holds its employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour and “we find these allegations deeply disturbing”.
Shankar Mishra, before being terminated by Wells Fargo, was employed in its office in Mumbai as the Vice President of Operations (India). He is a resident of Mumbai and is known as ‘Suraj’ in Kamgar Nagar, where he has been staying for the past two decades, according to his neighbours.
Referred to as ‘Suraj M’ on LinkedIn as well, according to Newsroompost, he is an alumni of SVKM’s Marsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), a private university in Mumbai.
Following the accusations of a woman who was travelling on the Air India flight on November 26, 2022, the police issued a Look Out Circular (LoC) against Mishra. The Delhi Police issued summons to eight crew members of the airline, including the pilot, and deployed four teams across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi to trace the accused.Based on a complaint by Air India, the Delhi Police had on Wednesday filed an FIR on charges of sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of a woman. Mishra was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (sexual harassment), 294 (obscene act), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) and section 23 of Air Craft Rules, 1937.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) also issued notices to the Delhi Police, DGCA and Air India and sought an action taken report against the airline for its negligence in the matter.
Mishra remained untraceable despite teams being sent to his residence in Mumbai’s Kamgar Nagar in Kurla. Officials said that his family was not cooperating with the investigations, following which assistance was sought from the Mumbai Police, who kept a close watch on Mishra’s residence.
Shankar Mishra is believed to be from Mumbai, works as a vice president for Wells Fargo in India which is a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in California, USA.
2. Mishra has been charged with sexual harassment and obscenity by the Delhi Police, and he will be arrested as soon as possible.
After being booked for the act on Wednesday, the airline barred him from flying for 30 days. Air India also filed a complaint against him at the Palam police station in Delhi. But the ban is being compared to that of the comedian Kunal Kamra who was barred from flying in multiple airlines including Air India for six months, for allegedly passing comments on journalist Arnab Goswami, questioning his journalistic ethics and also calling him a "coward".
Indian police authorities have arrested Shankar Mishra for allegedly urinating on a passenger aboard an Air India flight in November.
Indian media reported that Mishra, formerly an executive with American banking giant Wells Fargo, had urinated on a passenger, an eldery woman, on a flight from New York to Delhi.
Air India has de-rostered four flight crew members and a pilot as a result and announced an internal investigation.
Mishra has been fired by his employer, with Wells Fargo calling the incident "deeply disturbing" on Friday.
Delhi police officials earlier said Mishra was still at large though they had been in contact with his family.
According to media reports, Mishra had switched off his mobile phone at the beginning of this month but made a credit card transaction in Bangalore city which gave away his location. Mishra was being taken to capital city Delhi for investigation.
Air India has also faced severe criticism for its response to the case — the airline had not filed an official complaint until a more than a month later after the incident took place in November 2022.
The airline's cabin crew has come under fire for allowing the man to walk away after they had been notified about it.
India's aviation safety regulator slammed the airline for their "unprofessional conduct" in a press statement on Friday.
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