Gauri Lankesh Murder Trial Hands Over to 7th Judge as Key Witnesses Turn Hostile
PTI
New Delhi: The protracted legal pursuit of justice for the 2017 assassination of prominent journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh has encountered another administrative transition. The trial against 17 individuals—accused of plotting and executing the murder under the umbrella of right-wing Hindutva groups—is now being presided over by its seventh judge since daily hearings began.
On Tuesday, June 10, Judge K.S. Bharath Kumar officially assumed control of the trial proceedings at the principal district and sessions court in Bengaluru. Kumar stepped in after the previous judge, M. Chandrashekar Reddy, was transferred to a senior administrative role within the Karnataka High Court.
The trial, which officially commenced on July 4, 2022, following a 2018 chargesheet, has seen a continuous rotation of the judiciary. Previous presiding judges—including S. Amarannavar, Anil Katti, C.M. Joshi, Ramakrishna Huddar, and B. Muralidhar Pai—were all consecutively elevated to the high court. Judge Kumar initiated his tenure by recording the statement of a police constable, marking the 216th deposition out of an anticipated 400 prosecution witnesses.
Gauri Lankesh, the 55-year-old editor of Lankesh Patrike and a vocal critic of Hindutva extremism, was gunned down outside her Bengaluru residence on September 5, 2017. The brazen assassination was allegedly carried out by two motorcycle-borne assailants: Parashuram Waghmore, a former Sri Rama Sena member, and Ganesh Miskin, a Hindutva activist from Hubbali.
According to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), this was not an isolated incident but a targeted hit orchestrated by a well-coordinated syndicate operating under the banner of the Sanatan Sanstha. Active between 2013 and 2018, this extremist network maintained a 'hit-list' of ideological critics, which notably included The Wire’s founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan. Forensic analysis in the preliminary chargesheet further confirmed that the weapon used to assassinate Lankesh was the same firearm used to kill scholar M.M. Kalburgi in 2015.
Despite the SIT’s exhaustive chargesheet, the prosecution faces mounting challenges in court. Recent proceedings have been marred by a troubling pattern of key witnesses retracting their statements.
In May 2025, a critical witness from Belagavi, who initially confessed to attending weapons training camps led by outside experts, turned hostile on the stand. Shortly after, another recruit from Udupi denied any participation in the syndicate's operational meetings. Furthermore, a witness linked to the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti—accused of lending his motorcycle for the reconnaissance of Lankesh’s home—also formally denied his earlier statements to the police.
Our Final Thoughts:
The transfer of the Gauri Lankesh murder trial to its seventh judge underscores the systemic delays often inherent in India's judicial process. Coupled with the alarming trend of prosecution witnesses turning hostile, the path to convicting the syndicate responsible for silencing one of India’s most fearless journalistic voices remains fraught with critical legal hurdles. Constant judicial vigilance is required to ensure this watershed case reaches a conclusive, evidence-backed verdict.
