India’s capital city police charged Air India passenger with having engaged in an obscene act in a public place, assault on a woman “with intent to outrage her modesty,” public intoxication, and a “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman,” after he allegedly urinated on an elderly female passenger sitting in business class aboard flight from New York to New Delhi.
According to New Delhi police and Air India, the man was a top Indian Wells Fargo executive, identified by Indian media as Shankar Mishra, the vice president of the American multinational financial services company’s India operations, based in Mumbai.
US banking giant announced that its employee involved in Air India incident had been promptly fired.
“Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behavior and we find these allegations deeply disturbing. This individual has been terminated from Wells Fargo,” the company said in a statement, adding that it is “cooperating with law enforcement.”
While it is still not clear what exactly caused the lewd incident, Mishra was reportedly to have been heavily intoxicated while on a flight from to New Delhi before relieving himself on a 72-year-old woman.
According to assaulted Air India passenger, her “clothes, shoes and bag were soaked in urine.” The victim reported the assault to the crew.
After the charges were officially filed by New Delhi police, Mishra had vanished and currently remains on the run, though police officials say they have been in touch with his family.
“The accused is a resident of Mumbai and the investigators have found that his possible location is in some other state. He will be arrested at the earliest,” a senior police official said.
Though the incident took place on November 26 of last year, the elderly victim did not lodge a formal complaint with Air India until December 20. According to reports, Mishra later apologized after sobering up on the plane and the woman “found it difficult to insist on his arrest or press charges after he expressed remorse.” Nonetheless, she ultimately decided to report the assault to the airline.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s air safety regulator has criticized the airline for failing to report the obscene attack sooner, not bringing it to the authorities until December 28.
While the airline insisted that “the story is more complicated than has been reported,” it acknowledged it took long time for it to act. It also admitted that another similar incident happened in December on Air India flight from Paris, France to India’s capital city.
The DGCA strongly criticized Air India’s actions or rather inactions, and demanded a written report about the incident within two weeks.
“The conduct of the concerned airline appears to be unprofessional and has led to a systemic failure,” Indian aviation regulator said in a statement.
