Air India executive wins libel case against UK newspaper

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London, May 1: : A senior Air India executive has won a libel case against a British eveninger over false accusations that he sexually harassed a female colleague and was a 'serial sex pest'.

Captain Ashwini Kumar Sharma, an army captain and former aide-de-camp to the Indian president who is now an executive director of the airline at its Mumbai headquarters, has been awarded 85,000 pounds in damages and 500,000 pounds in cost.

However, the High Court judge granted a "stay" on payment, pending a possible application by the newspaper for permission to appeal.

Hailing the verdict Capt Sharma said, "I am delighted to have been totally vindicated. 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 article was published."

"I am extremely grateful to my legal team and to the jury and the justice process in this country," he said.

During the eight-day trial, Capt Sharma, who was the Regional Director of Air India in charge of UK and Ireland, said: "the grossly defamatory and fundamentally false" front page article in The Evening Standard headlined Sex Shame of Airline Chief, damaged both his reputation and health.

His lawyer Ian Winter told the court, the August 2006 article led to his client being shunned in Britain, where he had wanted to make his home with his wife and two grown-up children.

"In short, his world fell apart. He was unable to sleep or eat properly and fell into depression. In the following six months, he lost 10 kilograms in weight and was prescribed Diazepam (Valium) for anxiety and insomnia," Winter told the court.

The article appeared shortly before the end of Capt Sharma's four-year tenure in London.

Police told Sharma, that a female ground services employee had made a complaint against him, but an investigation saw no charges brought, Winter told the court.

Yet The Evening Standard article inferred he was guilty of harassment of such seriousness that it led to his dismissal and he only escaped further action because of his political connections, he said.

Associated Newspapers, the media group that owns The Evening Standard as well as the Daily Mail newspaper, denied libel arguing that the article was substantially true.

They accepted that Sharma was not forced to step down, did not resign, had not faced harassment charges at the time or had been protected by anyone.