Sugata Bhattacharjee, a US-based doctor of audiology who was seated next to accused Shankar Mishra in business class on the New York-New Delhi Air India flight, has alleged that the flight crew cleaned the elderly women passenger’s seat and kept blankets it smelling of urine, after the women requested for a new seat, news agency ANI reported.
A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mishra, who allegedly urinated on the woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.
Bhattacharjee, who had earlier claimed that the captain of the flight made the traumatised victim wait for close to two hours before allocating her a fresh seat, alleged that the crew could have given Mishra’s seat to her but they didn’t do anything to pacify distressed passenger.
“The lady (victim) was quite decent. Two junior air hostesses cleaned her up. I went to the senior stewardess and asked them to give her another seat, she said that she can’t do that as they had to take permission from the captain,” ANI quoted Bhattacharjee as saying.
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“The only option for her was to move to 1st class as business class was full, what they (flight crew) did was clean her seat and kept blankets on the seat smelling of urine. They could have given Shankar Mishra’s seat but they didn’t do anything to pacify the distressed passenger,” the co-passenger said.
Further recalling the incident, Bhattacharjee, said Mishra had four drinks and then was asking him the “same questions multiple times”. “I finished lunch and told the flight attendant to keep an eye on him,” he added.
In a handwritten complaint to the airline, the doctor of audiology had earlier said the woman passenger was made to go back to her soiled seat despite four seats in the first class being vacant, reported news agency PTI.
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Bhattacharjee’s revelation comes after the 70-year-old victim made a similar allegation against the Air India crew. In her complaint to the airline, she wrote: “I asked the staff for a change of seat but was told that no other seats were available. However, another business class passenger who had witnessed my plight and was advocating for me pointed out that there were seats available in first class.”
After standing for 20 minutes, the victim was offered a small seat used by airline staff where she sat for about two hours. She was then asked to return to her own seat. When she refused, the victim was offered the steward’s seat for the rest of the journey, the Delhi Police FIR stated.
Bhattacharjee said he was seated on 8A (window) in the first row of business class, next to the accused Mishra who was in seat 8C.
Shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off onboard AI 102 of November 26 (JFK New York to IGIA, New Delhi), the inebriated male passenger seated in a business class seat walked to the elderly woman’s seat (9A), unzipped his pants and urinated on her.
The lavatory was four rows behind his seat.
According to Bhattacharjee, he was woken up midflight when Mishra fell on him. “I initially thought he lost his balance due to a rough flight. However, as I was going to the restroom, I saw my two fellow passengers of 9A and 9C in distress,” he said, adding the woman of 9A came to the gallery area, she was all wet.
“We were shocked to realise that my co-passenger (8C) was so intoxicated that he went to the next row and urinated on her,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, the metropolitan magistrate said the bail application will be considered on January 11.
Bengaluru police had assisted Delhi police in arresting Mishra from Sanjay Nagar area in the city. The Delhi Police registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India.
