Air India 'urinating' incident: Multiple teams sent to Mumbai, accused absconding

New Delhi: The Delhi Police sent multiple teams to nab the man, who had allegedly urinated on his female co-passenger on an Air India flight on November 26 last year, but he was absconding, officials said on Thursday.

The Delhi Police registered an FIR against the man on Wednesday based on the complaint given by the victim to Air India, they said.

The police said the accused Shankar Mishra is the vice-president of the India Chapter of an American multinational financial services company headquartered in California.

In the shocking incident, the accused, allegedly in an inebriated condition, urinated on his co-passenger, a senior citizen in her seventies, in the business class of an Air India New York-Delhi flight.

Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be "unprofessional", aviation regulator DGCA on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for "dereliction" of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.

A senior police official said, "Mishra is a resident of Mumbai. We had sent our teams to Mumbai at his known locations but he was absconding. Our teams are trying to trace him".

Based on the victim's complaint, a case was registered under Indian Penal Code sections 294 (obscene act in public place), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) as well as under Aircraft Rules.

Air India on Wednesday said that it has imposed a 30-day flying ban on the accused passenger and set up an internal panel to probe whether there were lapses on part of the crew in addressing the situation.