Shrikant Pangarkar, one of the 17 men accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh and a former Shiv Sena corporator who spent six years in jail while the case remains under trial, has won the Jalna municipal election as an independent candidate, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee in a ward where the Eknath Shinde–led Shiv Sena, now a BJP ally in Maharashtra, did not field a candidate.
Pangarkar secured 2,621 votes from Ward 13-D of the Jalna municipal corporation, winning by a margin of 144 votes over the BJP candidate, while all other contenders finished far behind. His victory has drawn attention because of his long association with the Shiv Sena and because the Shinde-led faction’s decision to stay out of the contest in the ward was seen as aiding his electoral prospects, a claim Pangarkar has denied in media interactions.
He will now serve as a corporator of the Jalna municipal corporation council, returning to elected office nearly two decades after he last held a civic post. Pangarkar had earlier served as a Shiv Sena corporator between 2001 and 2006 and had briefly attempted to rejoin the party in 2024, an effort that was reportedly abandoned amid objections over the serious criminal case pending against him.
The case relates to the murder of Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead outside her Bengaluru residence on September 5, 2017. The Karnataka government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which filed a charge sheet in 2018, accusing Pangarkar of providing financial support to procure weapons used in the killing. Charges were framed in November 2021 under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, the Arms Act and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.
Since then, supplementary charge sheets have expanded the prosecution record to more than 9,000 pages, naming organisations such as Sanatan Sanstha and alleging that several rationalist thinkers were targeted by the accused network. A special court was set up within the Bengaluru City and Sessions Court, but the trial has progressed slowly, with more than 100 witnesses yet to be examined.
Pangarkar was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court in September 2024 after spending six years in custody without the trial nearing completion. He had earlier been arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in the Nalasopara arms haul case, which involved charges including under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and was granted bail in that matter in August 2024.
Investigators have alleged that the firearm used in Lankesh’s murder was also used in other killings, including that of rationalist scholar M.M. Kalburgi in 2015, yet the prosecution has not concluded the trial. Following his election, Pangarkar said the case against him was sub judice and that the allegations remained unproven.