US financial services company Wells Fargo on Friday said it had sacked Shankar Mishra, who allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger on an Air India flight from New York to Delhi in a drunken state, adding that the allegations were “deeply disturbing”.

“This individual has been terminated from Well Fargo,” the firm said in a statement. The company said it held its employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour and “we find these allegations deeply disturbing”.

“We are cooperating with law enforcement and ask that any additional inquiry be directed to them,” the statement added.

A four-member Delhi police team arrived in Mumbai on Friday afternoon in search of Mishra, who allegedly urinated on a woman in her 70s in the business class of the flight on November 26, but found his home locked, an officer said. Another team has gone to Bangalore, where Mishra’s office is located. He had been working from home.

According to a Mumbai police officer, the Delhi team reached the Nehru Nagar police station in the suburbs and made an entry in the station diary informing the authorities they had come in search of Mishra.

The visiting team, without taking along any Mumbai police staff, launched a search for the accused and reached his bungalow, B47, at Kamgar Nagar in Kurla (East) which was found locked, he said.

The Tata group-owned airline on Wednesday said it had imposed a 30-day travel ban on Mishra.

Against the backdrop of the incident, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has told airline staff to report any improper behaviour on aircraft to authorities at the earliest even if the matter appears to have been settled.

In an internal communication to employees, Wilson said: “The repulsion felt by the affected passenger is totally understandable and we share her distress.”

With questions asked about the airline not immediately reporting the unruly passenger to law enforcement, Wilson advised staff to report all incidents.

“Whilst the story is more complicated than has been reported, there are clearly some lessons we can and must learn. Most importantly is that, if an incident on our aircraft involves improper behaviour of such magnitude, we must report it to authorities at the earliest opportunity, even if we genuinely believe that the matter has been settled between the parties involved,” he wrote on Friday.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday stated that Air India did at first glance appear not to have complied with provisions related to the handling of unruly passengers onboard. It called the airline’s conduct “unprofessional” and sought a report.

The elderly woman who had complained about Mishra urinating on her had informed the crew that she did not want to see his face. She was “stunned” when the offender was brought before her and he “started crying and profusely apologising”.

According to the Delhi police’s FIR, Mishra begged her not to lodge a complaint, saying he was a family man and did not want his wife and child to be affected by the incident.

The woman alleged that despite her unwillingness, she was forced to confront the accused and negotiate with him, further “disorienting” her.

“I immediately got up to notify the stewardess of what had happened. My clothes, shoes and bag were soaked in urine. The bag contained my passport, travel documents and currency. The flight staff refused to touch them, sprayed my bag and shoes with disinfectant, and took me to the bathroom and gave me a set of airline pyjamas and socks,” the woman was quoted as saying in the FIR.

“I asked the staff for a change of seat but was told that no other seats were available. However, another business class passenger who had witnessed my plight and was advocating for me pointed out that there were seats available in first class.”

After the woman had spent 20 minutes standing, she was offered a small seat used by airline staff and sat in it for about two hours. She was then asked to return to her own seat. When she refused, she was offered the steward’s seat for the rest of the journey, the FIR stated.

The woman said her sonin-law had sent a complaint to Air India on November 27 and the airline agreed to reimburse the ticket. However, it only issued a partial refund that, she said, was “hardly sufficient compensation for my traumatic experience”.