New Delhi: Shrikant Pangarkar, one of the 17 men accused in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Karnataka almost a decade ago, whose candidature in the Maharashtra municipal election from Jalna became controversial, has won, securing 2,621 votes. He defeated his closest rival in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 144 votes and left candidates of all other parties – except the Shiv Sena, which did not field a candidate on Ward 13 where he contested – behind in the race.The Shiv Sena, Pangarkar’s old party, is said to have supported his independent candidature in the Jalna election. However, in media interviews, Pangarkar has denied this, while leaving a future return to the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, open.His victory from Jalna means he will serve as a corporator (member) of the Jalna municipal corporation council, representing Ward 13-D.Pangarkar’s past connection with the Shiv Sena is well documented. He was a corporator with the party from 2001 to 2006, long before it was split into factions, and briefly attempted to rejoin the Shinde-led Shiv Sena in 2024. The idea had to be dropped due to widespread anger over the serious charge he faced, of murdering Lankesh, who was unarmed when she was shot dead outside her home on September 5, 2017.The fact that no candidate was fielded against him by Shinde’s party reportedly helped him secure Friday’s victory, after which he was seen celebrating with supporters.Gauri Lankesh murder trialNearly a decade after Lankesh’s murder, the case against Pangarkar (and all the other accused) remains pending in the trial stage in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where the killing occurred. The state government had set up a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the killing, conducted in broad daylight by bike-borne men (the SIT recovered the vehicle in 2018) captured on CCTV camera during the crime and as they fled.A 650-page charge sheet was initially filed (in 2018) by the SIT in and charges framed against the accused in November 2021 – four years after Lankesh’s murder – yet the case is yet to be decided.A special court was set up in Bengaluru to try the case, within the City and Sessions Court in Bengaluru. The accused were charged under the Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act, Arms Act and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.The supplementary charge sheets in the case have since then taken the prosucution’s documents to over 9,000 pages and named organisations such as Sanatan Sanstha, some of which had ‘intellectuals’ on their hit list – the charge sheet carried the accusation that 26 such indivuduals were allegedly planned targets of these groups.The web of actors allegedly involved in Lankesh’s assassination and numerous other such crimes has been detailed by the CJP when the first charge sheet was filed as well as in news reports.In September 2024, the Karnataka High Court released Pangarkar on bail on the ground that he had been incarcerated (for six years since 2018) without the trial nearing conclusion. The trial began in 2022, a year after charges were framed.Several of the other accused are also on bail since early 2025. The bail granted to Mohan Nayak, one of Pangarkar’s co-accused, was upheld by the Supreme Court in August 2024, on grounds of delay in progress of the trial, Bar & Bench reported. Similarly, eight accused were granted bail by Septemebr 2025, according to a report in The News Minute. Others have also been released on bail over the years, primarily due to how slowly the case has been progressing.Independent watchdogs have repeatedly noted that more than 100 witnesses are still waiting to be heard in this case. Witnesses are being heard ever since the trial commenced, but progress has been slow.Not the only case against himPangarkar has spent time in police and judicial cutody on two sets of primary charges: murder and ‘arms trading’, as The Week reported on Friday. To be exact, one of the witnesses examined by the Karnataka SIT allegedly said in 2018 that Pangarkar (then 40 years old) had extended financial support to Lankesh’s killers to procure weapons.At the time of this (alleged) revelation, Pangarkar was already in judicial custody in Mumbai. The state government’s Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) had arrested him just a month earlier, in August 2018, on charges of dealing in ammunition, including crude bombs, and scoring locations. One of the charges he faced was under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA. In this case, known as the Nalasopara arms haul case, the Maharshtra High Court granted Pangarkar (and four other co-accused) bail in August 2024, according to the Times of India.That is how his custody reportedly passed from Maharashtra Police to the Karnataka SIT. He was granted bail in in 2024, Deccan Herald reported on Friday.Importantly, the same weapon that was used to shoot Lankesh has been alleged by inestigators to have been used in other murders, inclulding the killing of Professor M.M. Kalburgi, a popular rationalist from Karnataka, two years earlier, in August 2015.But though Pangarkar spent six years in jail, the prosecution could not bring the trial against him or any of the accused to a close. Multiple judges have heard the case since then.Every year, especially around the anniversary of Lankesh’s death, her younger sister, Kavita, and many others note with anguish that the case is delayed year after year, even though the trial had started.The Sessions Court judge noted in May 2022, as reported by LiveLaw (Hindi):After hearing the arguments of the case, both parties agree that the trial will be decided continuously for a week on a day-to-day basis in a month and as per the convenience of the parties. The Special Public Prosecutor will file a memorandum pointing out the witnesses he is going to inquire during the week-long session.The judge had instructed that witness lists, once submitted for examination in court, could not be recalled – a common occurence in high-profile or sensitive cases – and that doing so would lead to a fine. All the accused were at the time lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail or imprisoned in Bengaluru. Some were to appear in the daily hearings (beginning July 2022), via video conferencing.According to a news report in Bangalore Mirror published on Friday, Special Public Prosecutor S. Balan, who has handled the Lankesh case since 2018, confirmed to the paper that with only two or three hearings a month in the case, the trial’s end remains distant.After winning the election on January 16, Pangarkar reportedly said, “I have received justice in the people’s court. The Gauri Lankesh murder case is sub judice, and I am innocent. The allegations against me have not been proven so far.”While 18 accused were identified by police in the case, 17 were arrested, and one was absconding for years.