Gauri Lankesh, a senior Kannada journalist known for her criticism of Hindu extremism, was shot dead at her home on Tuesday evening.
According to police, at least three suspects were involved and Lankesh was found dead on her verandah around 8pm with bullet wounds to her head and chest.
Lankesh, 55, was the daughter of famous poet-turned-journalist P Lankesh. She was the editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrike, writing often against Sangh organisations and communal violence in the country.
Police say a senior Indian journalist was fatally shot by unidentified attackers in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
Police say the assailants pumped bullets into Gauri Lankesh on Tuesday as she left her car after reaching her home in Bengaluru, the Karnataka state capital. The attackers fled the scene.
Top police officer R.K. Dutta said it was too early to say who killed her. He said he had met Lankesh recently, but she did not talk of any threat to her life.
According to the Hindustan Times, Lankesh, the editor of weekly tabloid Lankesh Patrike, was known to be a critic of right-wing groups and Sangh organisations. She often criticised communal violence, HT reported.
She was recently found responsible in a defamation case by a lawmaker of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for her writing about Hindu nationalists.
In 2015, an Indian scholar, Malleshappa M. Kalburgi, was killed in a similar way, also in Bengaluru. He was a critic of religious superstition.In 2015, Left ideologue and Kannada author Prof MM Kalburgi was shot dead in a similar manner by an unidentified gunman at the doorstep of his home.
Bengaluru deputy commissioner of police MN Anucheth said, “It is too early to comment on the issue, we cannot reveal any further details at the moment.”
Politicians Karnataka home minister Ramalinga Reddy said there were two CCTV cameras and three police teams were working on the case.
People began gathering outside her residence as news of her murder spread and protests started at the Corporation Circle in the heart of Bengaluru and near her home.
