Man who ruined Aruna Shanbaug's life located

A prominent Marathi daily has tracked down Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, the man who snuffed the life out of Aruna Shanbaug’s painful existence.
Aruna, 67, a former nurse, died on May 18 at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

Aruna, then 25, was on November 27, 1973, sexually assaulted by the sweeper-cum-wardboy.

Walmiki attacked her in the hospital and wrapped a dog chain around her neck and yanked her back with it. He tried to rape her, but finding that she was menstruating, he sodomised her.

To immobilise her during this act, he twisted the chain around her neck. The next day, Aruna was found in the basement in a pool of blood – and subsequently she slipped into coma.

Walmiki was caught and convicted, and he served two concurrent seven-year sentences for assault and robbery, but not for rape or sexual molestation, nor for the alleged “unnatural sexual offence.” He had spent seven years in prison.

Dnyanesh Chavan, a journalist of with the Marathi daily, tracked him down in Parpa village in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh. He now works as a labourer with a contractor at an NTPC plant at Dadri.

Identity changed
Earlier reports have claimed that he changed his identity and was working as a sweeper in a Delhi hospital.

Till a couple of days ago, the Mumbai Police which claimed that it did not have any details of Walmiki, is now seeking legal opinion on the matter.
“When he heard the news of death of Aruna Shanbaug, he felt sorry for it. That’s what he told me,” said Chavan. 

The daily had given two-and-a-half pages of coverage on Walmiki, now in his sixties, and has spoken to his relatives including his brother and son.  “Even 42 years ago, the news has appeared, that time also, there was no reference to rape,” Walmiki said during his interaction with the reporter. 

Walmiki’s son Ravinder said that because of the incident his mother “suffered a lot”.
“When this happened I was not born, but my mother has suffered a lot,” he said.