Gauri Lankesh Murder Case: Nine Years On, Trial Still Awaits Verdict

Lankesh ran Lankesh Patrike, the Kannada weekly founded by her father, P. Lankesh, as a platform for Dalits, women and the marginalised. She carried that legacy forward with her own uncompromising voice. Through its pages, she repeatedly criticised Hindutva politics and communal violence, identified perpetrators by name and spoke against the spread of hate-mongering in public life.

The investigation has alleged that her killing was a planned execution rather than the result of a family feud or links with Naxals, claims that have repeatedly been raised by the defence. Investigators have alleged that she was targeted because of her opposition to Hindutva extremism and that a group of men planned her killing for about a year.

According to the investigation, a network described as an “organised crime syndicate” had been formed around 2010 under the banner of Sanatan Sanstha and its sister organisation, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. Investigators linked the network to the doctrine of a book that instructs followers to eliminate those it brands as enemies of the faith.

In August 2016, the group allegedly selected Gauri Lankesh as a target. Parashuram Waghmare was trained as the shooter near Belagavi, where he was taught to fire a country-made pistol. A recce team was also sent to study her house before the killing was carried out.

On the evening of September 5, 2017, investigators alleged that Waghmare and his accomplice Ganesh Miskin rode to Lankesh’s residence, opened fire and fled into the Bengaluru night.

Investigators have also alleged that the same weapon was used in a chain of executions, including the killing of rationalist M.M. Kalburgi two years earlier. A chargesheet named a hit list containing twenty-six additional names, including journalists, professors and playwrights who were allegedly targeted for thinking and writing freely.

The investigation resulted in a 9,000-page chargesheet naming eighteen accused. However, nine years after Gauri Lankesh’s killing, the case is still without a verdict. Her family continues to attend court proceedings as the trial remains pending.

Seven judges have presided over the case so far. Most were transferred out or elevated to the High Court before they could complete the proceedings.

The defence has filed petition after petition, contributing to delays in cross-examinations that have included attempts to question Lankesh’s reputation rather than establish accountability for her killing. Witnesses who had spoken about training camps later turned hostile, with their earlier testimony effectively disappearing without any real investigation into why they changed their statements.

As of last year, all the accused in the case had been released on bail. The men charged with conspiring to kill a journalist were granted liberty as the state failed to deliver a trial quickly enough to justify keeping them in custody.

The prolonged proceedings have also placed a continuing burden on Gauri Lankesh’s sister, Kavitha Lankesh, who found her sibling’s bullet-ridden body and has spent nine years pursuing justice through the legal system.

The delay has also become a wider concern for journalists who see the case as a measure of the protection available to those who publish material that powerful groups may oppose. With repeated petitions and adjournments extending the proceedings, the absence of a verdict continues to raise questions about the justice system’s ability to deliver accountability in the killing of a journalist.

Gauri Lankesh was killed on September 5, 2017, after being targeted in a planned attack, according to the investigation. Nine years later, the accused remain on bail and the case continues through the courts without a verdict, leaving her family and the wider journalistic community still waiting for an end to the proceedings.