Shanbaug was diagnosed with pneumonia last week and was put on ventilator support. On Sunday, doctors said her condition had improved slightly but she continued to remain on life support.

Shanbaug was being taken care of by a group of KEM hospital nurses and doctors for the last four decades. Her family members reached KEM hospital to claim her last remains.

However, an IANS report said that a controversy erupted over the funeral, with two relatives of Shanbaug staking claim to perform the last rites. They claimed before mediapersons that all attempts to meet Shanbaug were stone-walled by the hospital authorities. However, nurses at the KEM Hospital demanded that since they had tended to Shanbaug for over four decades, they should be allowed to perform the last rites. The hospital, civic and police authorities have reportedly evolved a compromise formula by which the nurses and the two relatives shall jointly perform the funeral.

On November 27, 1973, Shanbaug who then worked as a junior nurse at the Kings Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, was brutally assaulted and raped by a wardboy-cum-sweeper of the hospital, Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki, after throttling her with a dog chain. The brutal assault cut off blood and oxygen supply to key parts of her brain. Ms. Shanbaug had been in a vegetative state since and confined to a bed at the KEM hospital where nurses and the hospital staff take care of her.

"The demise of Aruna Shanbaug is a jolt for any sensitive mind. It is ironical and a cruel turn of fate that someone who dreamed of dedicating her life to medical care as a nurse should remain bed-ridden. She continue to fight Destiny bravely and her struggle will remain immortal," State Congress Chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said in a condolence message.