The Gauri Lankesh murder trial began only in March 2022 — nearly five years after she was shot dead in front of her house — and has moved at a glacial pace.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Two years ago, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had said at an event commemorating journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder that justice would be served when her killers are convicted. Yet, eight years after her murder, the trial is still to be completed. It began only in March 2022 — nearly five years after Gauri was shot dead in front of her house — and has moved at a glacial pace. Out of the 532 witnesses originally listed, only 193 have been examined. Hearings are confined to just 3-5 days a month, derailed by frequent adjournments, a revolving door of presiding judges, and endless procedural manoeuvres from the defence. The outcome? Of the 18 accused, 17 are out on bail — their release enabled not by proof of innocence but by the system’s own lethargy — and one remains absconding.
Gauri’s sluggish trial is not an aberration; it is part of an unfortunate trend. Data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) shows that more than 61 journalists have been killed in India since 1992 for their work, and at least 19 murders have been unsolved between 2014 to 2024. CPJ’s Global Impunity Index calculates the number of unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each country’s population. In 2024, India ranked 13 on the Index.
Close to a year after Gauri’s killing, Kashmiri editor Shujaat Bukhari was gunned down outside his office in Srinagar’s press enclave. To this day, we still do not know who killed Bukhari, let alone seen anyone prosecuted. Nine years after Hindustan journalist Rajdev Ranjan was killed in Siwan, Bihar, a CBI court delivered its verdict on August 30, 2025. Three men were convicted, but one of the key accused walked free, while the alleged mastermind, former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, was never charged before his death due to COVID-19 in 2021. In the 1999 killing of Outlook cartoonist Irfan Hussain, the accused walked free in 2006 because investigators failed to establish each piece of circumstantial evidence. The case of The Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, also murdered in 1999, dragged on for nine years. Finally, the Delhi High Court acquitted the main accused in 2011 citing insufficient proof. In Assam, the 1996 case involving the assassination of editor Parag Kumar Das wound its way through 13 years of investigation and trial before the last surviving accused was acquitted in 2009. Each of these cases reflects a grim pattern: weak investigations, intimidated or hostile witnesses, and justice lost in judicial limbo.
What distinguishes the murder of journalists from other homicides is its direct assault on the public’s right to know. These are not just private tragedies; they are constitutional violations. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which the Supreme Court has called the “foundation of all democratic organisations,” is shredded each time a journalist is killed and the trial allowed to rot. These tragedies silence stories and warn others that truth can be suppressed with bullets.
Recognising this danger, the Press Council of India (PCI) intervened in 2016 after Ranjan’s killing. PCI chairperson Justice C.K. Prasad wrote to the Bihar Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister demanding a special law to protect journalists. His recommendation was unequivocal: murders of journalists should be tried in special fast-track courts. At the time, the PCI pointed out that 96% of journalist murder cases had not been concluded. Eight years later, Gauri’s trial demonstrates how prescient it was.
In May 2023, Mr. Siddaramaiah agreed to Gauri’s sister Kavitha’s demand to shift the trial to a fast-track court. However, Kavitha told the CPJ that the Karnataka High Court rejected the request in 2024.
Journalist murders are not just a domestic failure but also a breach of India’s international obligations. Under Articles 2 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, India is obligated to protect media workers and ensure prompt, thorough, and effective investigations into attacks against them. The UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists reinforces this responsibility.
If special courts can be created for politicians and for crimes against women and children, they can be created for journalists whose work safeguards the very foundations of democracy too. Anything less is complicity in silence.
Kunal Majumder is the India Representative of the international press freedom advocacy group, CPJ
Published – September 03, 2025 02:10 am IST