I know a lot of people must be wondering at the title of this post, who the hell is Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki? To cut the long story short and/or to refresh the memory of the people who might have read about this case:
Aruna Shanbhag is a nurse from Haldipur, Karnataka in India. In 1973, while working at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, she was sexually assaulted by Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, a ward boy at the hospital. Sohanlal was motivated partly by resentment for being ordered about and castigated by Aruna.
On the fateful night of 27 November 1973, he 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.
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, the late Dr. Deshpande perhaps, to avoid the social rejection of the victim. Sohanlal was caught and convicted, and he served a 7 yr concurrent sentence for assault and robbery. Not for rape or sexual molestation, nor for the "unnatural sexual offence" (which could have got him a 10 yr sentence by itself).
Since the assault, she has been in a vegetative state. On 24th 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. However, it turned down the mercy killing petition on 07th March, 2011. The court, in its landmark judgement, however allowed Passive Euthanasia.
However, this is not what i was looking for! I wanted to know about the man who did this. I wanted to find out where is he and what is he doing on today's date? I searched the internet (google) to find out what i had pretty much expected (but still left me disgusted). First of all, all that i found on the first few pages of google were articles on Aruna Shanbaug, what happened to her and blah!
But, what amazed me was the skewed mind set of the media who happened to highlight only Aruna's plight without ever wanting to know or investigate as to where did the man who did this go? I searched a bit more and this is what i found:
Now, what i read was not the same old article on Aruna's plight or the debate on her mercy killing petition. I read the comments section and i feel that this one comment from a gentleman in US summed up exactly what i was looking for and he couldn't have put what i had to say in better words, here it is:
If you look up Wikipedia, you should find a summary of Aruna Shanbaug's case. The examining doctors as directed by the hospital chief Dr Deshpande did not mention in their report that the victim was raped anally and bled for days, to save her fiance and his family from social rejection and ostracization, in case Aruna recovered!! This omission frustrated the police and prosecution greatly, because they could not charge the accused with the serious crime of rape, but only with the lesser crime of assault. With the assault and rape charge the accused (Sohanlal Walmiki) could have been sentenced up to life in prison. With the assault & robbery charge he served only 7 years and got out, and reportedly got another hospital job in New Delhi! Such is the twisted, bizarre & convoluted status of society and justice in India.
The attacker strangled Aruna and damaged her neck so badly she became a vegetable for the rest of her life; yet, our system could not convict him of attempted murder. Once Dr. Deshpande decided to conceal the fact of anal rape out of his twisted sense of preventing 'social rejection' for the victim and her fiance, there was no going back. The case of robbery was proved - the attacker stole a necklace and a few rupees from Aruna. But both charges - attempt to murder and robbery - got him only 7 years. If this is not a travesty of justice, I don't know what is. Barring a complete overhaul of our justice system, this is likely to continue.
S. S. Kere
Richmond, VA, United States
Richmond, VA, United States
I don't know what more to say, I don't wish to discuss whether Aruna's life should be ended or not bcoz frankly speaking i don't think i have the right to do so! So, should i really wish everybody a typical and customary "Happy Women's Day"....i won't coz i don't feel like.
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