Shrikant Pangarkar, an accused in the 2017 murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh, has won a seat in the Jalna Municipal Corporation election in Maharashtra as an independent candidate.
According to The News Minute, Pangarkar won Ward 13 by a margin of 2,621 votes, beating candidates from the BJP, and other parties. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena did not field a candidate for this ward. Once the results of these elections were announced, Pangarkar celebrated his victory with his supporters.
Pangarkar had previously served as a corporator on the Jalna Municipal Council, representing the undivided Shiv Sena, between 2001 and 2006. After he was denied a ticket in 2011, he joined the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an extremist right-wing Hindu organisation.
A series of legal troubles
Lankesh, 55, had been the editor of Lankesh Patrike, a weekly Kannada tabloid, when she was shot dead outside her home in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Months before her death, she told Newslaundry about the “rabid hate” she received from the “Hindutva brigade”. Read this piece in Newslaundry on a friend’s last conversation with Gauri hours before her murder.
Pangarkar was charged by the Karnataka Police in 2021 alongside Amol (the prime accused), Amit Degwekar, Sujith Kumar, Ganesh Miskin, Amith Badd, Bharath Kurane, Suresh HL, Rajesh Bangera, Sudhanva Gondalekar, Sharad Kalaskar, Mohan Nayak, Vasudev Suryavamshi, Manohara Edave, Naveen Kumar, and Rushikesh Deodikar. But he was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court on September 4, 2024.
In August 2018, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested and booked Pangarkar under the Explosives Act, Explosive Substances Act, and UAPA after they had seized crude bombs and weapons from different parts of the state, according to The News Minute.
Briefly back in the Shiv Sena
Before the 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra, Pangarkar had briefly joined the Shiv Sena. Still, his induction was rendered “null and void” by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde following widespread criticism of the move, according to The Indian Express.
The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance looks all set to win the municipal elections across the state today. According to an update from the Times of India, “Out of 2,086 wards declared so far, the BJP is leading in 1,088, giving it a commanding edge over all other parties. Shiv Sena stands a distant second with 299 leads, while the Congress trails further behind at 179. Shiv Sena (UBT) is ahead in 141 wards, and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar has 120 leads, highlighting the fragmented state of the opposition.”
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