Bengaluru: Unidentified assailants shot dead Gauri Lankesh, a senior woman journalist and activist, on September 5 in Bengaluru, capital of Karnataka state.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar told the Hindu newspaper three assailants attacked her as she was entering her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar at 8 pm.
According to M.N. Anucheth, another police officer, her body was found on the verandah of her house. Police have cordoned the area.
The 55-year-old journalist’s death comes two years after leading progressive thinker and researcher M.M. Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in Dharwad, a city in Karnataka state.
Lankesh was also a theater person and noted film maker. She was among Karnataka’s controversial journalists. She was convicted of two defamation cases recently. As she been known for her strident stands against communalism, she was on the target of rightwing organizations in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Reacting to the news Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee chief G. Parameshwara said MLankesh’s death was a great loss to the community of independent journalism. “Lost a dear friend, an accomplished journalist and a wonderful human being. Miscreants will be brought to book very soon,” he added.
Lankesh came to limelight in 2008 when she published a story against Prahlad Joshi, a Member of Parliament belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party and others in a tabloid run by her. Joshi filed defamation suit against her. The court held her guilty of defamation and sentenced her for six months and fined her 10,000 rupees. She had gotten anticipatory bail to evade arrest. In the story, Gauri had alleged that some BJP leaders had duped a Jeweler 100,000 rupees. The court summoned the jeweler who denied getting cheated.
Lankesh had vehemently opposed the defamation suit. However, she bluntly refused to give any documentary proofs for allegations that she had leveled against BJP politicians. She had said that it was not proper for a journalist to reveal the identity of source.
She was born in Bengaluru in 1962. Her father was P Lankesh, a noted writer and journalist.