Unidentified assailants gunned down renowned journalist Gauri Lankesh outside her home in Bangalore, in Karnataka state, on the evening of Sept. 5, 2017. Lankesh was found dead on the porch of her house with multiple bullet wounds to her chest and head. The motive for the killing was not immediately known.
Lankesh, 55, was known as an active critic of Hindu nationalism, far-right politics and the caste system. She was sentenced in 2016 to spend six months in prison in two defamation cases brought against her by members of Bharatiya Janata, India’s largest political party, over a 2008 article in her magazine Gauri Lankesh Patrike accusing them of theft. Released on bail, Lankesh was appealing the sentence.