Jalna, 8 Jan

An accused in the sensational murder of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh is contesting the 15 January Jalna Municipal Corporation polls in Maharashtra as an independent candidate.

Shrikant Pangarkar is in the fray from Ward 13. His opponents are candidates from the BJP and several other parties, though the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has not fielded a contestant.

Incidentally, ahead of the November 2024 assembly elections, Pangarkar had joined the Shiv Sena. However, following an outcry, Shinde kept his induction into the party in abeyance.

Lankesh was shot dead outside her residence in Bengaluru, Karnataka, on 5 September 2017, a murder that made national headlines, triggering a fierce debate over liberalism, secularism and communalism in the backdrop of the political change in the country since 2014.

Pangarkar was a member of the Jalna municipal council from the undivided Shiv Sena between 2001 and 2006. He joined the right-wing Hindu Janjagruti Samiti after the Shiv Sena denied him a ticket in 2011.

He was also arrested in August 2018 by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in connection with the seizure of crude bombs and weapons from different parts of the state. Pangarkar was booked under the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substances Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) at the time.

He was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court on 4 September 2024 in the Gauri Lankesh murder case.