Shankar Mishra, 34, who has been accused of urinating on an elderly co-passenger in a drunken state on board an Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26, was arrested from Bangalore on Saturday.

Mishra, who was sacked from the US financial services company Wells Fargo against the backdrop of widespread outrage, was brought to Delhi and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. The court rejected the police’s plea for custody, saying such action just because of public pressure was not required.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday issued an apology over the handling of the incident and said four cabin crew and a pilot had been de-rostered and the policy of serving alcohol on flights was being reviewed.

Mishra, a Mumbai resident, was picked up from his sister’s home in Bangalore’s Sanjay Nagar in the small hours of Saturday, his use of social media apps and a taxi driver’s tip-off giving him away, sources said. A police team from Bangalore assisted their Delhi counterparts.

Deputy commissioner of police (Delhi airport) Ravi Kumar Singh said: “Shankar Mishra has been arrested from Bangalore by a Delhi police team. He has been brought to the capital and further investigation into the case is underway.”

“A team of 20 policemen were on the job to locate his movements. He had switched off his phone but later we found he was using his social media accounts to communicate with his friends and family members,” a police officer said, adding that the team also monitored his bank transactions and found that he had used his credit and debit cards on Thursday.

Late on Friday night, Mishra’s location was traced with the help of the taxi driver, in whose vehicle the accused had been travelling for the past two days, the police said.

In the Delhi court, the police had sought three days’ remand for Mishra, saying he was required to be identified by three cabin crew members and two captains and that other co-passengers also needed to be examined. Metropolitan magistrate Anamika noted that Mishra’s police custody was not required for recording the statements of other witnesses. ”Just because there’s public pressure, don’t do this. Go by the law,” the judge said.

The FIR against Mishra has been registered under Sections 294 (obscene act in public place), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under Aircraft Rules.

A Delhi police team had visited Mishra’s Mumbai home at Kamgar Nagar in Kurla on Friday but found it locked. Air India has imposed a 30-day flying ban on him.