Mumbai: The hospital staff and nurses conducted the last prayers in the hospital after which her body was kept amongst flowers in the hospital’s main building for visitors to pay last respects.
The KEM nurses formed a human chain around her body all day to protect it from the overwhelming crowd. The hospital staff took turns to manage the hospital patients and be present at Aruna’s funeral.
Aruna’s body was taken to Bhoiwada Samshan Bhumi at around 5 pm in an ambulance where her last rites were conducted amongst a few relatives and hundreds of nurses and hospital staff who sang loud slogans praising her undying spirit.
The room near Ward No. 4 at KEM Hospital, which had been Aruna’s home for the past four decades, has been locked since she last left it on Friday evening after being admitted to the ICU.
The 67-year-old nurse had been reduced to a vegetative state on the night of November 27, 1973 after being strangulated with a dog’s belt by Sohanlal Walmiki, the ward boy who had raped her while she was changing. The incident took place in a basement room of the pulmonary department building in KEM Hospital after her duty had ended and she was about to leave for home.
