Air India urination case: Angry Kathak dancers call Shankar Mishra's claims 'stupid and baseless'

New Delhi: The claims of Shankar Mishra, accused of urinating on an elderly woman on an Air India flight, that it was the female co-passenger who “urinated on herself” and that she suffers a problem that most Kathak dancers have, drew sharp criticism from Kathak artistes.

In a Delhi court today, Mishra’s counsel said: “I’m not the accused. There must be someone else. She herself urinated. She was suffering from some disease related to prostate. 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.”

“She urinated herself. She suffers from a problem that most Kathak dancers have. When she realised what happened, she didn’t know what happened,” the counsel claimed.

‘Stupid and ridiculous’: Kathak dancers react

Kathak dancer Shovana Narayan called the claims by Mishra’s lawyer “stupid and ridiculous”.

“A person peeing has nothing to do with vocation…. It’s a very stupid, baseless and ridiculous argument. How can she pee on herself? She could only have peed into the seat. ‘On herself’ is different from peeing ‘into a seat’,” Narayan was quoted as saying by News18.

Practising Kathak for 30 years, Manisha Gulyani from Jaipur Gharana too reacted to the claims, saying that it is the other way around.

Also Read: Air India Pee-Gate: Accused Shankar Mishra’s lawyer says complainant urinated on herself 

“Use of pelvic area in Kathak is more and the core gets strengthened due to regular practice. Saying Kathak dancers face urination problem is far-fetched,” Gulyani told News18.

The incident took place on 26 November last year. It had been alleged that Mishra allegedly urinated on a 70-year-old woman in an inebriated condition in the business class of Air India New York to New Delhi flight.

Co-passengers on the Air India flight who were seated in Business Class had also claimed that the pilot made the traumatised flyer wait for close to two hours before allotting her a fresh seat.

The victim in her complaint said that she was made to stand for 20 minutes and later offered a small set used by airline staff.

However, a US-based doctor, Sugata Bhattacharjee, who was seated next to Mishra told the airlines in a handwritten complaint that the elderly woman was made to go back to her soiled seat despite four seats being vacant in the flight’s First Class.

Bhattacharjee said that he was seated on 8A (window seat) in the first row of Business Class, next to Mishra who was seated in 8C.

Minutes after lunch was served and the lights on board were dimmed, the inebriated passenger seated in Business Class seat walked up to the elderly woman’s seat (9A), unzipped his pants and urinated on her.

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