'Stupid & Ridiculous': Kathak Dancers Angry at New Claim by Air India Pee Case Accused

In a shocking new claim, Shankar Mishra, the man accused of urinating on an elderly passenger on an Air India flight, told a Delhi court on Friday that it was the woman who urinated on herself. “She suffers from a problem that most Kathak dancers have,” his lawyer said, prompting swift reactions from Kathak artistes who trashed the bizarre theory.

The claim by his lawyer, made for the first time since the events of November 26 last year onboard an Air India New York-New Delhi flight, grossly contradicts the accounts of co-passengers and even a string of WhatsApp exchanges the accused had with the victim which suggested the unsavoury incident indeed took place.

“I?m not the accused. There must be someone else. She herself urinated. 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? 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,” the defence advocate told court.

“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 lawyer claimed.

Calling the claim “stupid and ridiculous”, Kathak dancer Shovana Narayan, in a conversation with News18, questioned how the woman could have urinated on herself.

“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 said.

Manisha Gulyani from the Jaipur Gharana, who has been practising Kathak for 30 years, in fact, said it is the other way around.

?The use of pelvic area in Kathak is more and the core gets strengthened due to regular practice. So, whosoever says that Kathak dancers face urination problem is far-fetched (sic),? she told News18.

Kathak dancer Soni Chaurasia from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh told the news agency ANI, ?This is an absurd statement and with this, he has insulted all Kathak dancers. The statement is a myth as dancers train their minds and body in a way that can remain very balanced for a very long time.?

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

Sugata Bhattacharjee, a US-based doctor of audiology who was seated next to the accused, told the airlines in a handwritten complaint that the distressed passenger was made to go back to her soiled seat despite four seats in the First Class being vacant.

In the complaint, Bhattacharjee said he was seated on 8A (window) in the first row of Business Class, next to the accused Shankar Misra who was in seat 8C.

Shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off on board AI 102 of November 26 (JFK New York to IGIA, New Delhi), the inebriated male passenger seated in 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.

?We were shocked to realise that my co-passenger (8C) was so intoxicated that he went to the next row and urinated on her,? Bhattacharjee wrote.

All this while, two air hostesses helped clean her up, change her clothes and sanitized her belongings and seat.

?A senior citizen was subjected to trauma due to indecency of a passenger. She being a female had no idea how to cope with the obscenity,? he wrote. ?I personally am bothered by the fact that the captain waited close to two hours before allotting her a fresh seat.?

According to the victim?s complaint, she was made to stand for 20 minutes and offered a small seat used by airline staff as no seat was vacant in the Business Class.

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