Urination incident: Shankar Mishra's lawyers refute findings of Air India panel

After Air India imposed a four-month flying ban on Shankar Mishra, who is accused of urinating on a woman co-passenger onboard a flight in November last year, his lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai accused the airliner's internal inquiry committee of making up things.

They said while they respected the authority and mandate of the committee, the panel failed to correctly understand the layout of the aircraft.

"We respect the authority and mandate of the internal inquiry committee, but we disagree with their findings and are already in the process of appealing this decision in accordance with the DGCA CAR for unruly passengers," a statement from the lawyers read.

"We would particularly like to point out that the internal inquiry committee's ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the aircraft."

"When the committee could not find an adequate explanation as to how the accused could have urinated on the complainant sitting on seat 9A without also affecting the passenger on Seat 9C, it has erroneously gone on to assume that there was a seat 9B in the business class in the aircraft and imagined that the accused could have stood at this imaginary seat and urinated on the complainant on seat 9A," the lawyers said, and pointed out that there is no 9B in the business class on the craft - only seats 9A and 9C.

They said the finding is surprising because threw ere two aviation experts on the committee. "We maintain the innocence of the accused and have full faith in the judicial system of the country."

Meanwhile, the DGCA, on Friday, imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Air India as well as suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight in which the incident took place.