Shankar Mishra, the person accused of urinating on an elderly female co-passenger on-board an Air India flight, has another online identity – Suraj.
The police are trying to track Shankar Mishra down
By Bidisha Saha, Dipti Yadav: The Delhi Police FIR into the infamous Air India incident identified the accused as Shankar Mishra. The incident has been in the news recently after the news of him urinating on an elderly female co-passenger in business class on a New York to New Delhi flight in an inebriated condition surfaced.
A digital analysis of his social media presence by the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) team of India Today revealed that Shankar Mishra, the vice president of an American financial services company, Wells Fargo, has another digital persona as Suraj M. Earlier media reports named a person named Shekhar Mishra but later the FIR registered by the police named Shankar Mishra as the accused.
While running a LinkedIn search for vice president of Wells Fargo, we came across the profile of Suraj M. Interestingly, his professional experience and educational qualifications match exactly that of Shankar Mishra’s. On further investigation of his activities on LinkedIn, “a day in life” of “Shankar Mishra, Senior Analyst, (ICG Risk GIRM Mumbai COE)” came up, which affirms that both the names of Suraj and Shankar belong to the same person.
Also Read | Man who urinated on Air India co-flyer says matter was settled, compensation paid to woman
Shankar Mishra aka Suraj M has a LinkedIn premium account that lets the operator see the profile of visitors but did not show other linked social media handles like Instagram and Facebook, during the time of investigation.
Further, Shankar Mishra’s portfolio on Rocket Reach, an internet contact aggregator, has a detailed version of his qualifications, work experiences, and educational background that matches exactly with the profile of Suraj M on Linkedin. This likely shows that it’s possible that sometime in the past, his LinkedIn profile might have used the name Shankar Mishra instead of Suraj and the profile picture. The identity of Shankar was also confirmed by his company, Wells Fargo, which said, “Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behavior. We are fully cooperating with the authorities in their enquiries regarding this incident.”
Also Read | Air India horror: Shankar Mishra changing locations to evade arrest
WHO IS SHANKAR MISHRA AKA SURAJ?
According to his profile, the accused is a management professional who graduated from Narsee Monjee Institute and went on to work with the leading American financial services company, Citi Bank, for 10 years, where he started as a trainee analyst and rose to the position of vice president. In an article from 2015 that he authored, Mishra described the job as “demanding” and one which stretches “self beyond the normal working hours”. Recently, in February 2021, he took up the role of vice president at Wells Fargo.
India Today also accessed his WhatsApp phone number where, ironically, his status says: “Mistakes don’t DEFINE us, Mistakes REFINE us” – probably admitting in a very subtle way his obscene conduct. Another irony can be traced, as he notes in a post back in 2015, “at the end of the task you always become proud and have a big smile on your face when the transaction which you have worked on becomes a newspaper headline another day…”.
Also Read | ‘Wanted him arrested, but they…’: Woman peed on by co-passenger during flight
“TRAUMATIZING” ACCOUNT OF THE CO-PASSENGER
The incident took place in late November on a New York-Delhi Air India flight. Mishra’s co-passenger is an elderly lady in her 70s who shared her ordeal in a written complaint to Air India.
In the traumatizing account, she writes about the “unprofessional” behavior of Air India staff, who made many delinquencies in managing the “sensitive” situation. Failures on the part of Air India range from the lady being asked to sit in the same “soiled” seat despite the airline having other vacant business class seats, the crew not showing good judgment on the number of drinks served to passengers, and also only partially reimbursing her for the flight.
Another major misstep on the part of the airline was that they made the offender, who was sobered up by then, sit in front of the woman and apologize in spite of the victim making it clear that she did not wish to interact with him. The man “started crying and profusely apologizing to me, begging me not to lodge a complaint against him because he is a family man who did not want his wife and child to be affected by this incident”. She was made to negotiate with him in her already “distraught” condition.
DELHI POLICE LAUNCHES MANHUNT
A case has been lodged against Shankar Mishra and various efforts are being made to arrest him. The Delhi Police on Thursday wrote to the authorities concerned, seeking a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Mishra since he is incommunicado and is not cooperating with the investigation.
A case has been lodged under sections 354 (sexual harassment), 294 (obscene act in public), 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman), 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) of the Indian Penal Code.
Also Read | ‘Cabin crew unprofessional, made me sit with him’: Woman who was urinated on by co-flyer
