Senior journalist Gauri Lankesh shot dead at her residence in Bengaluru, India

[sandensea]

Gauri Lankesh, a senior journalist and activist in Bengaluru, was shot dead outside her home in Rajarajeshwari Nagar on Tuesday evening. Police said her body was found on the verandah of her home in West Bengaluru.

"We learnt that the victim was shot dead from close range when she was standing outside her house in Rajarajeswari Nagar (in the suburbs) around 8.00 p.m.," a senior police officer said.

Lankesh had just reached home and was about to enter when unidentified men shot at the 55-year-old journalist seven times from close range; three bullets hit her on the neck and chest. Her body has been taken to the Victoria Hospital for a postmortem.

She ran the weekly Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada tabloid. Like her father, noted Kannada writer P. Lankesh, Gauri Lankesh faced opposition and criticism of her journalism. She was part of a group that worked for communal harmony, and her views were considered Leftist and anti-Hindutva.

In November 2016, she had been found guilty of defamation in a case involving right-wing MP Prahlad Joshi and had been sentenced to six months in jail; she was out on bail.

Lankesh was a vocal opponent of Prime Minister Narendra Mori, whom she slammed for asserting last year that "women don't own anything."

"No one owns me," she said. "I might not have gold; but I have independence, self-respect, and freedom of thought. I guess a man like you could never understand that."

At: http://www.ndtv.com/bangalore-news/senior-journalist-gauri-lankesh-shot-dead-at-her-residence-in-bengaluru-1746480

Gauri Lankesh, 1962-2017.