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Shankar M. in New Delhi on Saturday
Photo: Dinesh Joshi/AP
Indian police have arrested a former manager at US bank Wells Fargo for allegedly urinating on an elderly passenger on a transatlantic flight.
Shankar M. was arrested in the city of Bengaluru (Bangalore) and taken to the capital New Delhi, a police spokesman said on Sunday.
Wells Fargo fired the employee on Friday.
M. is said to have peed on a 72-year-old passenger on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi in business class at the end of November.
According to the Associated Press news agency, a court in New Delhi has ordered the man into custody for 14 days while the police continue to investigate.
M. face up to three years in prison.
Air India turned on the police late
The Times of India newspaper quoted M. as saying that he was drunk on the flight and couldn't believe what he had done.
Another passenger said M. had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol and spoke incoherently,
Air India is also increasingly being targeted.
Although the incident happened on November 26 and the 72-year-old woman then wrote to the airline to complain, the airline apparently only called the police a few days ago.
Air India said it believed the two passengers had settled the matter between themselves.
However, Indian media reported that the company only acted after the woman's family pressured Air India.
In addition, there was another similar incident at Air India in December: on a flight from Paris to Delhi, a passenger urinated on the blanket of a fellow passenger.
In social networks, these events caused excitement and ridicule.
Air India has now suspended the pilot and four crew members from the New York flight.
"These incidents could have been handled better," said Campbell Wilson, the airline's chief executive.
Air India has taken steps to better respond to such incidents and will fully cooperate with affected passengers and law enforcement.
che/AP