Mumbai Nurse Aruna Shanbaug Dies After 42-year Coma That Followed her Rape

[Viking 63]

RIP this is very tragic indeed,......... what happened to that animal who did this.

 

[Emmie]

Sad story! 42 years, even her family left her. May her soul rest in peace!

She was sodomized but no such charge was pressed? Pathetic example of prosecution.

 

[punit]

he should have been tried for rape and attempt murder... he will probably get 25 years in US and 15+ years in UK. The law is there but Indian higher judiciary (a sizable number of judges) do not want to appear conservative. Apparently some judged boasted in private they never gave death penalty, and will never do.
I am against death in general too, but in favour of long jail term in proportion to the crime.

On topic: she should have been allowed to die in a dignified way. The hospital should be probed to see whether they followed ethical standard.

the guilty in this case was never charged for rape. Only for attempt to murder and was sentenced accordingly.

Sad story! 42 years, even her family left her. May her soul rest in peace!

She was sodomized but no such charge was pressed? Pathetic example of prosecution.

sexual assault charge was never pressed by Hospital.

RIP this is very tragic indeed,......... what happened to that animal who did this.

he received just a slap on wrist. The true fact of rape assault was withheld by hospital and family.

 

[Emmie]

sexual assault charge was never pressed by Hospital.

So is it safe to assume she wasn't raped at all?

 

[punit]

So is it safe to assume she wasn't raped at all?

she was raped sodomized but to safeguard the name of hospital .. the Dean in charge did not pressed the charge. Also the family either out of shame or shock did the same.

 

[anant_s]

So is it safe to assume she wasn't raped at all?

Well @Emmie , remember that this incident happened in 1973 and the rules for pressing of rape charges weren't the same as they are now. Coupled with the fact that hospital management didn't act properly in pressing charges led to relatively very lenient punishment.
As i said above in one post, after that horrible rape case (known as Nirbhaya case), in March 2013, an amendment was passed that broadened the definition of sexual offences. It also includes provision of legal action against one more social malice, the acid attacks.
The problem however lies somewhere else. Even today primarily owing to social stigma attached and a common belief that in such event only the girl is to be blamed, almost negligible amount of cases are reported. While a person convicted of such crimes will come out after completing his sentence, women know for sure that in event of reporting, their social acceptance will be almost lost. As a result people prefer to stay quiet, further encouraging the guilty.
Recently, both government and civil society has taken into cognizance of the fact that respect of privacy of victim, fair, transparent and quick trial, punishing the guilty and most importantly accepting the victim as a normal member of society (who had the misfortune of facing any other crime) are the only way forward to treat this problem.

 

[Emmie]

she was raped sodomized but to safeguard the name of hospital .. the Dean in charge did not pressed the charge. Also the family either out of shame or shock did the same.

Well @Emmie , remember that this incident happened in 1973 and the rules for pressing of rape charges weren't the same as they are now. Coupled with the fact that hospital management didn't act properly in pressing charges led to relatively very lenient punishment.
As i said above in one post, after that horrible rape case (known as Nirbhaya case), in March 2013, an amendment was passed that broadened the definition of sexual offences. It also includes provision of legal action against one more social malice, the acid attacks.
The problem however lies somewhere else. Even today primarily owing to social stigma attached and a common belief that in such event only the girl is to be blamed, almost negligible amount of cases are reported. While a person convicted of such crimes will come out after completing his sentence, women know for sure that in event of reporting, their social acceptance will be almost lost. As a result people prefer to stay quiet, further encouraging the guilty.
Recently, both government and civil society has taken into cognizance of the fact that respect of privacy of victim, fair, transparent and quick trial, punishing the guilty and most importantly accepting the victim as a normal member of society (who had the misfortune of facing any other crime) are the only way forward to treat this problem.

I am sure even in 1973 the accused used to prosecuted on the basis of facts ascertained through investigations. As for as I know the charges pressed by complainant unless ascertained aren't the basis for criminal or any trial. What one registers in FIR is not necessarily the actual case. That said, what hospital pressed and what it didn't shouldn't have been the the criteria. The prosecution is not merely a group of some lawyers meant to conduct legal proceedings on behalf of the state, it's an institution and there's a constitutional relationship between prosecution and investigation. Poor lady was molested and violator got away because hospital didn't press rape charges.

 

[gslv]

WTF.... 42 year in coma.....Supreme Court should have give the order of her death ...Nobody have right to suffer Pain as such long time and even she was a victim and innocent too. wtf.... . 42 years in coma...... .

Euthanasia is not legal in India for the fear of misuse.

 

[Nicky G]

If euthanasia was ever permissible, this should have been it. The SC however refused it. The lady suffered needlessly with even her family having disowned her.

My humble respects.

 

[anant_s]

What one registers in FIR is not necessarily the actual case.

True. The charge sheet is the actual document on the basis of which a court hears the case and delivers the judgement.

The prosecution is not merely a group of some lawyers meant to conduct legal proceedings on behalf of the state, it's an institution and there's a constitutional relationship between prosecution and investigation.

Thats what is the legal and moral duty of prosecution is. That said several times the competence of the lawyer often becomes the difference on which way the court proceedings will go. A lot of such cases where adequate punishment was not meted was due to the fact that either the case itself was shoddily investigated, sometimes the lawyers didnot argue properly and worst the witnesses turning hostile for reasons like intimidation, extremely long running time of cases etc.

Poor lady was molested and violator got away because hospital didn't press rape charges.

I don't have any proof to substantiate, but hospital management at the time was perhaps more concerned about its image rather than fighting for rights of one of their own staff. What a big shame.

 

[kaonalpha]

A sexual assault victim in India who remained in a coma for 42 years has died, rekindling the debate on legalizing euthanasia in the country.
Aruna Shanbaug, 67, died at 8.30am local time, Dr Avinash Supe, dean at the King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai, confirmed to CNN.

Shanbaug, who used to work as a staff nurse at the hospital, "was suffering from pneumonia for the past week and later suffered a cardiac arrest," Dr. Supe said.

"She was put on a ventilator during that time. She was being fed with a tube and had been in a vegetative state for the past 42 years," he said.

Supe referred to Shanbaug as a victim of sexual assault in 1973.

Pinki Virani, an author and journalist based in Mumbai, wrote a book entitled "Aruna's Story" in 2000, detailing Shanbaug's ordeal. In the book, Virani claimed Shanbaug was brutally sodomized and strangled with a dog chain by a sweeper at the hospital where she had worked.

On March 7, 2011, Virani submitted a petition to the supreme court of India for euthanasia for Shanbaug, a practice which is illegal in the country. But her petition was rejected by the court.

However, as a result of Shanbaug's case, the supreme court legalized passive euthanasia in the same year, subject to restrictions. The method is described in the court's report as "withholding or withdrawing medical treatment including discontinuance of life supporting systems."

"The greatest irony is that it was because of her (that) the euthanasia (judgment) was passed, but she never benefited from it", Virani told CNN.

"She is in peace, at last, and so am I," she said.

There has been an outpouring of grief on Twitter, as well as opinions voiced on euthanasia and praise given to the hospital.

 

[pakistanitarzan]

Shame on the worlds largest democracy!

 

[Providence]

Wow ! Earlier India just had problem of filth and open dustbins and polybags flying all beside the road and now there's one more reason for not coming to India.

 

[ayesha.a]

Sad story! 42 years, even her family left her. May her soul rest in peace!

She was sodomized but no such charge was pressed? Pathetic example of prosecution.

Actually, the hospital only sued the rapist for assault and robbery, out of consideration for the victim. She was young, about to be married, and the hospital did not want her to face social stigma. (In hindsight though, I wonder what social stigma a woman in peristent vegitative state can face.)

By the way, an idiocy of Indian law at that time (I think inherited from ancient British law) was that only vaginal, penetrative rape was classified as rape. In this case, the woman was anally raped - and so the rapist would have faced only charges of "unnatural offence", and not of rape or sexual assault.

So is it safe to assume she wasn't raped at all?

She was anally raped, and quite brutally at that.

WTF.... 42 year in coma.....Supreme Court should have give the order of her death ...Nobody have right to suffer Pain as such long time and even she was a victim and innocent too. wtf.... . 42 years in coma...... .

Unfortunately, Indian law does not recognize the right to die. It was only in 2011 that even passive euthanasia was made legal, while trying this woman's case for euthanasia. I don't know why she wasn't allowed passive euthanasia, after they legalized it.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

KEM Hospital did something incredible