Bank executive arrested after urinating on plane passenger

Indian police arrested a senior executive at a US-based banking company on Saturday over an episode in late November in which the executive allegedly urinated on a female passenger on an Air India flight from New York to New York. Delhi.

The executive, Shankar Mishra – who was recently fired as vice chairman of Wells Fargo’s Indian subsidiary – faces charges under several Indian laws, including sexual harassment, obscenity and insulting a woman’s modesty. He was sent into judicial custody for 14 days, according to reports in local media.

The news of the episode, which was released after the airline filed a complaint with the police on Wednesday (4), sparked outrage on Indian social media. The delay between the fact and the complaint also raised questions about how Air India handled the situation.

Mishra appeared to be drunk on the flight where the incident took place, in business class, according to the victim’s testimony, a 72-year-old woman whose name the police did not release.

According to a written complaint to the chairman of Air India on 27 November, the day after the flight arrived in New Delhi, the victim asked for Mishra’s arrest immediately after landing. But, against the victim’s will, the plane’s crew took the passenger to her. He apologized and begged to be spared for the sake of his family.

“In my already distraught state, I was further disoriented to be forced to closely confront and negotiate with the perpetrator of the horrific incident,” she wrote in the statement to the Air India chairman, which was included in the police complaint filed by the airline.

That wasn’t the only problem the passenger had with the company’s handling of the matter. She said company staff refused to touch her urine-soaked shoes and bags, only spraying them with disinfectant. They provided company pajamas and socks for her to wear, but initially refused her request for another seat, the passenger said.

After the flight landed, Mishra agreed to pay for the dry cleaning of the woman’s belongings, according to a statement issued by her lawyers. They said a WhatsApp conversation between the two showed that Mishra had her clothes and bags cleaned on 28 November and delivered them on 30 November.

According to the statement, the remainder of his complaint was against the airline, not Mishra. It is not clear why Air India has waited weeks to file a complaint with the police.

Police in New Delhi, where the complaint was filed, said Mishra’s home in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, was locked when police arrived there on Friday to investigate the case. They said that the accused’s relatives were uncooperative with the officers. Mishra was found and arrested in the southern state of Karnataka on Saturday.

An Air India representative declined to comment, saying the company is cooperating with authorities.

On Friday night, Wells Fargo said in a statement that the company has employees of the highest standards of professional and personal behavior and that the person involved in the case had been terminated.

Also on Friday, India’s top aviation regulator issued a warning that airlines must strictly deal with unruly passengers and file complaints promptly with aviation authorities, and that non-compliance would require enforcement action.