AI exec wins libel against UK eveninger
London: A top Air India executive has won a whopping 5,85,000 pounds in damages and legal costs in a libel case against a British eveninger which published a report falsely accusing him of sexually harassing a female colleague.Captain Ashwini Kumar Sharma, an army captain who is now an executive director of the airline at its Mumbai headquarters, has been awarded 85,000 pounds (Rs 68,50,947) in damages and 500,000 pounds (Rs 4,02,99,000) in cost in his libel case against ‘The Evening Standard’ by a 12-member High Court Jury.
The paper in a front-page report in August 2006 headlined “Sex Shame of Airline chief” accused Sharma, also a former aide-de-camp to the President, of harassing junior female staff and claimed that he was a “serial sex pest.”
“I am extremely delighted that I have been vindicated. I am extremely grateful to my team of lawyers headed by Ian Winter and the legal system of the UK where a 12-member Jury and the judge David Eady in the High Court delivered the unanimous verdict last evening,” Sharma told PTI.
Besides Ian Winter, the defence team included Andrew Monsoon, a leading libel barrister, Christopher Steward More and B Kilpatric.
Sharma, currently the Executive Director in charge of sales, marketing and head of ground handling for Air India global operations, said he was also grateful to his wife and children who stood by him throughout the two-year-long traumatic period and the eight-day trial.
“There was not a shred of truth in any of the allegations made against me. This is exactly what I said on the day the art]icle was published.”
