Senior journalist, editor and activist Gauri Lankesh who was only 55 was shot dead by unidentified assailants at her home in Bengaluru. Four bullets were pumped into her body. The assailants were presumably following her on her way back from her place of work. She had been living alone in recent times. The police are hoping that CCTV footage from cameras which Lankesh had put up at her home may lead to some clues about the killers. She had of course faced a number of threats recently from rightist forces. She was known for her strident opposition to Hindutva advocates. Her murder is reminiscent of the killing of rationalist writer M M Kalburgi in 2015. Kalburgi’s murder still remains unsolved. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that police teams have been set up to investigate Lankesh’s murder. Union Minister of state for information and broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, has condemned the heinous killing.
Gauri Lankesh had carried at least 8 stories critical of the Union government and its leaders in the last 3 months. She had damned the Rohingya crisis and slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation policy. In her last weekly column, she wrote on the death of children at the Baba Raghu Das Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur. She also criticised the removal of its doctor, Kafeel Khan. On social media she shared posts criticising the BJP government. Her Facebook page carried a picture of the Dalit student, Rohit Vermulla who had committed suicide. Lankesh’s killing was hardly the first of its kind in India. So much for freedom of the press in this country!