Mumbai: Aruna Shanbaug, the 67-year-old nurse of KEM hospital passed away today at 8:30 in the morning. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and was kept on ventilator since a few days.

Aruna was in a vegetative state for more than four decades following her brutal rape in 1973. The KEM hospital nurse was more in news in recent years due to debate over euthanasia. In March 2011, Author Pinki Virani filed a petition over seeking mercy killing for Shanbaug but the Supreme Court rejected it and concluded that she had the right to live and should die natural death. Virani also wrote a book on Shanbaug. The hospital’s management and nursing staff had opposed the petition.

Aruna Shanbaug was a staff nurse at the KEM Hospital when she was molested by sweeper Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki on the evening of November 27, 1973.To immobilize her, he wrapped a dog chain around her neck and pulled her towards him. He wanted to rape her but could not as he found that she was menstruating but he sodomised her. When Shanbaug was found the next day, doctors learnt that her brain was totally damaged because the chain had cut off the supply of oxygen. The cortex and some other parts of her brain were also found damaged.

Aruna Shanbaug’s rapist Valmiki was sentenced to seven-years of imprisonment after being convicted of robbery and attempt to murder but was not charged for rape as official deleted parts of her medical report that showed Shanbaug was only sodomised.