Rapist of Indian nurse who was in 42-year long coma found in UP Village

Aruna was assaulted by Valmiki Shanbaug – then a ward boy – when she scolded him for stealing food


Web Desk May 30, 2015
PHOTO: NDTV

MUMBAI: The man who brutally assaulted Mumbai nurse Aruna Shanbaug, leaving her in a coma for 42 years, was a labourer working in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad area.

Bharta Valmiki raped Aruna and strangled her with a dog chain in 1973, after which she suffered brain damage and had been in a coma in a Mumbai hospital since.

Valmiki told Indian media that he could not recall what happened on that day.

"Why are you people calling it a rape?" Valmiki asked the journalist from who met him at Parpa village in Ghaziabad.

Working as a junior nurse in her 20's at Mumbai's KEM hospital, Aruna was brutally assaulted by Valmiki – then a ward boy – when she scolded him for stealing food that was meant for stray animals adopted by the hospital.

Read: Indian nurse dies after 42 years in coma following rape

After completing her shift and in the basement of the hospital before departing for home, Valmiki sodomised the Aruna and stranged her with a dog chain, cutting the supply of oxygen to her brain.

Discovered 11 hours later, Aruna was found to be blind and suffering from a severe brain stem injury.

After completing a seven-year jail sentence, Valmiki was freed and was never heard of again. Some reports suggested he died.

Read: Dehli rape film: Defence counsels say woman is like a flower, should stay indoors at night

Author Pinki Virani, who wrote the book 'Aruna's Story' and had petitioned the Supreme Court to stop the force-feeing of Aruna, claims that based on her talks with hospital ward boys, Valmiki later moved to Delhi, changed his identity and went on to work in a hospital there.

Valmiki denied the claim.

Mumbai police on Friday, in reaction to the report, said it would seek legal opinion on whether to file a fresh murder case against him.

Read: Robber 'gang-raped' elderly Indian nun: police

"Prima-facie it seems that this old case may not attract any fresh sections as Aruna died of pneumonia," Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti told PTI, when asked if they would consider re-opening the case after her death.

While giving judgment on plea of mercy killing filed by a journalist, the Supreme Court had said that let Aruna die a natural death. Hence in this purview, Aruna died of pneumonia that seems to be the immediate cause of her death," Bharti said.

It was however also added that the police would seek legal opinion before deciding the future course of action.

This article originally appeared on the NDTV

COMMENTS (2)

LawaTimes | 8 years ago | Reply PM should take strong action against these rapists as perception of India is becoming icon of rapists.
Liberal | 8 years ago | Reply How can this person sleep at night keeping in view that he has converted a human being into a live dead body? Pathetic.
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