Air India urination case: Kathak dancers claim Shankar Mishra’s lawyer’s statement ‘absurd’

The Air India “pee-gate” incident took a new turn today after the accused Shankar Mishra informed the Delhi Sessions Court that it was not he who urinated on himself but the elder woman sitting beside did. Mishra’s lawyer Ramesh Gupta said that the passenger was a kathak dancer and 80% of kathak dancers have urinating incontinence. 

Padma recipient Shovana Narayan, a Kathak dancer, rejected the allegations and claimed that Mishra is trying to hide the fact that he "outraged a woman's modesty."

The claim by his attorney, which was made for the first time since the events of November 26 of last year on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi, utterly defies the accounts of fellow passengers and even a string of WhatsApp conversations the accused had with the victim that seemed to support the veracity of the obscene incident.

(Also Read: Air India pee-gate: Shankar Mishra claims victim peed herself as she is a dancer, study says otherwise)

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 complaint,” Mishra further continued. 

“I do not agree with it at all, I think it is the weirdest reasoning that has ever been put forth. Any peeing or not peeing is not related to any vocation at all,” the news agency ANI quoted.

Delhi | I do not agree with it at all, I think it is the weirdest reasoning that has ever been put forth. Any peeing or not peeing is not related to any vocation at all: Padma Awardee Kathak dancer Shovana Narayan pic.twitter.com/QSu8MsURIc

— ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2023

The lawyer was criticised by another Kathak dancer Soni Chaurasia from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh for making an "absurd" statement and for insulting all Kathak dancers.

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“The statement is a myth as dancers train their minds & body in a way that can remain very balanced for a very long time,” the artist told 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 & body in a way that can remain very balanced for a very long time: Kathak dancer Soni Chaurasia, Varanasi, UP pic.twitter.com/UobpEVx94H

— ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2023

The sessions court judge, however, rejected the attorney's argument and requested a seating chart for the aircraft.

The incident happened on November 26 of last year. Mishra was accused of peeing on an intoxicated 70-year-old passenger in the business class of an Air India aircraft from New York to New Delhi.

Business Class passengers on the Air India flight reportedly asserted that the pilot had the traumatised traveller wait for nearly two hours before assigning her a new seat.