Who is Aruna Shanbaug?

In the basement of KEM Hospital, he strangled Aruna with a dog chain; left her brain dead after brutally raping her. (Photo – Express Archives)

On November 27, 1973, while working as a junior nurse at KEM Hospital, Auna Shanbaug was sexually assaulted by a ward boy, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki. He had also strangled her with a dog chain, cutting off the oxygen supply to her brain.

She was in a vegetative state since the assault. On 24 January 2011, after she had been in this state for 38 years, the Supreme Court responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna’s friend, journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her.

The court turned down the mercy killing petition on March 7, 2011.

Virani had narrated the story of the ailing nurse, who hailed from Haldipur in Uttar Kannada, in her 1998 non-fiction book called ‘Aruna’s Story’, while Duttakumar Desai wrote the Marathi play, ‘Katha Arunachi’ in 1994–95, which was staged under director Vinay Apte in 2002.

(With PTI inputs)

Source:: Indian Express