Drunk Man Causes Urination Disturbance on Plane... Senior Executive at Multinational Financial Firm

Arrested Weeks After Incident on Charges of Sexual Harassment and Obscenity
Wells Fargo Issues Statement: "Shocking... Already Fired"

Air India passenger plane. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] It was recently revealed that an Indian man who caused a disturbance on a plane by urinating on a passenger seated next to him while intoxicated is the vice president of the India branch of a multinational financial company.

According to U.S. economic media Business Insider on the 8th (local time), Indian police arrested Shankar Mishra (34), former vice president of the India branch of global financial firm Wells Fargo, on charges including sexual harassment and obscenity after conducting a search in Karnataka state in southern India the previous day. Mishra is accused of causing a disturbance on November 26 last year on an Air India passenger flight from New York to Delhi, India, by urinating on a 72-year-old woman seated next to him while intoxicated.

Air India faced heavy criticism for its lukewarm response to the incident. According to The New York Times (NYT), immediately after the incident, flight attendants were reluctant to assist the female victim who suffered the "urine attack," and initially refused her request to change seats. The victim demanded Mishra’s immediate arrest, but the flight attendants only brought him over to apologize to her. Later, the victim sent a protest letter to the airline expressing dissatisfaction, saying, "It was embarrassing to face and negotiate with the perpetrator in an already chaotic state." It was reported that Mishra, by mutual agreement, had the victim’s belongings laundered and returned after the plane arrived at its destination.

Subsequently, the airline banned Mishra from flying for 30 days, but the police report, which should have been made promptly, was filed only weeks after the incident. When the incident became public, Wells Fargo, where Mishra worked, issued a statement on the 6th saying, "The allegations are extremely shocking," and "The individual responsible has already been dismissed, and we are cooperating with judicial authorities regarding this matter." Headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo is one of the four major U.S. banks alongside Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase, with branches worldwide.

Moreover, a similar incident occurred just ten days after this event on an Air India flight, escalating concerns. On December 6 last year, a male passenger on a flight from Paris to New Delhi urinated on an empty seat and another passenger’s blanket.

India introduced regulations in 2017 that prohibit passengers who cause disturbances or fail to comply with control measures from boarding flights for a minimum of three months to over two years, depending on the severity of the act. However, Air India has been criticized for inadequate response by not properly applying these regulations to the recent series of incidents.

Air India, India’s flagship airline, is part of the Tata Group. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, expressed regret, stating, "Air India should have responded much more swiftly to passenger disturbances."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.