Eight years after chargesheets filed, trials in Gauri Lankesh and Kalburgi cases drag on

It has been nine and 11 years, respectively, since journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh and scholar M.M. Kalburgi were killed. This week marked the death anniversaries of both. Even as all the accused in both the cases are out on bail, the trials in their cases are nowhere near completion.

The families and close associates of the two have been demanding speedy trials for years now. Kavita Lankesh, who participated in an event to remember her sister at her tomb in Chamarajpet on Saturday, said it was nine years since Gauri was killed on September 5, 2017, and her mother Indira Lankesh died earlier this year before seeing justice being served.

“A proposal for setting up a special court for speedy trial of the case also did not bear fruit. Seven judges have changed since the trial began, and all the accused are on bail,” she lamented. Most of the accused in Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare cases, which have common accused with the Gauri and Kalburgi cases, are also out on bail.

One of the accused in the Gauri case, Srikanth Pangarkar, a former city councillor in Jalna, Maharashtra, again contested and won the seat in January, 2026, while on bail. Sources in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the case said though all the accused are out on bail, they were attending court regularly, personally, and no one was given exemption.

The trial is being held four days a month. Of the 532 witnesses, the prosecution has given up 130 and examined 220 till now. Another 180 prosecution witnesses are yet to be examined. Senior SIT officials expressed confidence that the trial could be completed in the next eight to 10 months.

However, the trial in the Kalburgi case has been very slow. The last hearing was in April, 2026, and the next date is September 23. Of the 139 witnesses, the prosecution has so far given up 30 and examined 33, leaving another 77 to be examined.

“At this rate, the trial will go on forever,” Shashidhar Todkar, a close associate of Kalburgi, said. “It has been over a decade now since he was killed. The very slow pace of the trial is very disheartening,” he said. Narendra Dabholkar (2013) and Govind Pansare (2015) were killed in Maharashtra, before Kalburgi was shot on August 30, 2015.

However, these cases remained unsolved. The SIT led by senior IPS officer B.K. Singh, formed after the murder of Gauri in 2017, cracked the case and uncovered an alleged conspiracy involving a gang with members associated with Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha and its sister organisations, to kill people they considered “anti-Hindu”.

This led to the three previous cases being cracked. Kalburgi case was also probed by the same SIT later. The Gauri Memorial Trust is observing Gauri Day on Sunday, as “GenZ day”. Ashtish Ranka, national spokesperson and co-convener of Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and Aoshe Ghosh, national joint secretary, Students' Federation of India (SFI), and several other student leaders will participate in the event at St.

Joseph's College Auditorium, in Bengaluru. “Gauri had embraced student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Jignesh Mewani as her children. Gauri would have been thrilled by the recent Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar.

So it is appropriate to hear these youngsters speak,” Ms. Kavita said.