Why Gauri Lankesh’s killers free,asks DUJ
17/01/2026
New Delhi,January 17 (KIO)-The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) is dismayed at the news that eight years after the murder of prominent journalist Gauri Lankesh those accused of her murder are out on bail and one of them has won a municipal election.
Shrikant Pangarkar, one of the 18 charged for the murder, has been elected to the Jalna Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra on January 16, 2026. He is on bail, having been enlarged six years after his 2018 arrest. He is accused as part of the murder conspiracy and allegedly supplied the weapons used to kill Lankesh as well as the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
He is a former member of the Shiv Sena. The Sena did not contest the elections against him.
A Special Court was set up in Karnataka to hear the case and the trial is ongoing. Yet it is a damning indictment of the administrative and judicial system that eight years later the trial is nowhere near conclusion and all the perpetrators are still free.
The DUJ demands that the governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra ensure that the trial is fast-tracked and justice is finally done to the memory of the feisty journalist Gauri Lankesh.