- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
US financial services company Wells Fargo on Friday (6) terminated Shankar Mishra, the vice president of its entity in India, as the latter was accused of urinating on an elderly woman in the business class of an Air India flight from New York to Delhi in November last year. Mishra was reportedly drunk at the time of the incident, Moneycontrol reported.
Earlier, media reports said the name of the accused is Shekhar Mishra but later, the first information report registered by the police named him as Shankar Mishra.
The matter came to the fore after the victim in her 70s wrote to Air India group chairman N Chandrasekaran and the controversy snowballed with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country’s civil aviation regulator seeking strong steps. Air India also came under heavy criticism for his handling of the issue.
The DGCA also issued show-cause notices to Air India officials and cabin crew of the flight, asking why action should not be taken against them on grounds of “dereliction” of duty while handling the incident.
After the incident was reported, the Delhi Police on Thursday (5) wrote to the concerned authorities for tracking down Mishra, who is a resident of Mumbai.
“This individual has been terminated from Wells Fargo. We are cooperating with law enforcement and ask that any additional inquiries be directed to them,” the company said in a statement released on Friday.
The firm also said that it holds its employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour and it found the allegations too disturbing.
A case was also registered against the accused under Indian Penal Code (IPC) 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.
