Shankar Mishra the man accused of urinating on an elderly woman co-passenger on an Air India flight, on Friday told a Delhi sessions court that he did not urinate on the complainant and she urinated on herself, news agencies reported.
I did not urinate on the complainant Mishra's defence told the Delhi Court, PTI reported.“The complainant woman's seat was blocked. It wasn’t possible for him (Mishra) to go there. The woman has a problem with incontinence. She urinated on herself. She is a Kathak dancer, 80% of Kathak dancers have this issue,” ANI quoted the lawyer as saying. The claim by Mishra's lawyer, made for the first time since the incident took place 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.
She was suffering from some disease related to the prostate. It was not him. The seating system was such that no one could go to her seat,” the lawyer reportedly said.The sessions court judge, however, stated that it is not impossible to go from one side of the flight to the other. “Sorry, but I have travelled as well. Anybody from any row can come around and go to any seat,” the judge said, asking for a diagram of the flight seating. "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 complaint,” the defence advocate told the court. The judge was hearing Delhi police's plea seeking custodial interrogation of the accused. The Delhi sessions court had issued a notice to Mishra on an application filed by the Delhi Police seeking his fresh custodial interrogation.