Aruna Shanbaug case

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Attack and trial[edit]

Aruna was planning to get married to a medic in the hospital.^[2]

On the night of 27 November 1973, Shanbaug was sexually assaulted by Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a sweeper on contract at the King Edward Memorial Hospital.^[3] Sohanlal attacked her while she was changing clothes in the hospital basement. He choked her with a dog chain and sodomized her. The asphyxiation cut off oxygen supply to her brain, resulting in brain stem contusion injury and cervical cord injury apart from leaving her cortically blind.^[4]

The police case was registered as a case of robbery and attempted murder on account of the concealment of anal rape by the doctors under the instructions of the Dean of KEM, Dr. Deshpande, perhaps to avoid the social rejection of the victim,^[5] and her impending marriage.^[2]

Sohanlal was caught and convicted, and served two concurrent seven-year sentences for assault and robbery, neither for rape or sexual molestation, nor for the "unnatural sexual offence" (which could have got him a ten-year sentence by itself).

Nurses' strike[edit]

Following the attack, nurses in Mumbai went on strike demanding improved conditions for Shanbaug and better working conditions for themselves.^[6] In the 1980s the BMC made two attempts to move Shanbaug outside the KEM Hospital to free the bed she has been occupying for seven years. KEM nurses launched a protest, and the BMC abandoned the plan.^[7]

Supreme Court case[edit]

Since the assault in 1973, she has been in a vegetative state.

On December 17, 2010, Supreme Court while admitting the plea to end the life made by activist-journalist Pinki Virani, sought a report on Shanbaug's medical condition from the hospital in Mumbai and the government of Maharashtra.^[8][9] On 24 January 2011, the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her.^[10] The three-member medical committee subsequently set up under the Supreme Court's directive, checked upon Aruna and concluded that she met "most of the criteria of being in a permanent vegetative state".^[11]

However, it turned down the mercy killing petition on 7 March 2011. The court, in its landmark judgement, however allowed passive euthanasia in India.

While rejecting Pinki Virani's plea for Aruna Shanbaug's euthanasia, the court laid out guidelines for passive euthanasia. According to these guidelines, passive euthanasia involves the withdrawing of treatment or food that would allow the patient to live.^[12][13]

Response[edit]

Following the Supreme Court judgment rejecting the plea, her colleagues, the nursing staff at the hospital, who had opposed the petition, and who had been looking after her since she had lapsed into coma, distributed sweets and cut a cake to celebrate what they termed her "rebirth". A senior nurse at the hospital later said, "We have to tend to her just like a small child at home. She only keeps aging like any of us, does not create any problems for us. We take turns looking after her and we love to care for her. How can anybody think of taking her life?"^[2]

Pinki Virani’s lawyer, Shubhangi Tulli ruled out filing an appeal stating "the two-judge ruling was final till the SC decided to constitute a larger bench to re-examine the issue". Pinki Virani herself stated, "Because of this woman who has never received justice, no other person in a similar position will have to suffer for more than three and a half-decades."^[14]

In popular culture[edit]

A non-fiction book titled Aruna's Story has been written by Pinki Virani about the case in 1998, while Duttakumar Desai wrote the Marathi play, Katha Arunachi in 1994–95 and was performed at the college level, subsequently it was staged under director Vinay Apte in 2002.^[15][16]

Anumol will play Aruna in a Malayalam film 'Maram Peyyumbol'^{[17] [18]}

Further reading[edit]

• Aruna's Story: the true account of a rape and its aftermath, by Pinki Virani. Viking, 1998
• Arunachi Goshta (Aruna's story) (Marathi), by Pinki Virani, 1998, Translator : Meena Karnikar. Mehta Publishing House. 1998 ISBN 81-8498-142-2

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Court ruling, Aruna Shanbaug vs. Union of India, March 7, 2011 at Supreme Court of India
• Pinki Virani's Interview - June 13, 2008
• "India court admits plea to end life of rape victim". BBC News, Delhi. 17 December 2009. 
• "Aruna Shanbaug case: Supreme Court rejects euthanasia plea". NDTV. March 7, 2011.