"She was shot dead from a close range at her house in Rajarajeshwari Nagar (in the suburbs) around 8 p.m. as she was entering the house," Bengaluru Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar told reporters here. A staunch critic of Hindu nationalist politics, last year Lankesh was convicted of defamation and sentenced to six months in prison for a story on a local leader of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Last year, she was held guilty in a defamation case filed by MP Prahlad Joshi and party associate Umesh Dushi over an article published on January 23, 2008, alleging that some BJP leaders in the region were involved in a cheating case. They can kill her but they cannot kill her thoughts.”

In recent days, Gauri Lankesh was actively involved in bringing many persons involved with the Naxal movement in Karnataka back into the mainstream with the co-operation of the Karnataka goverment where she enjoyed a good rapport with chief minister Siddaramaiah. Lankesh was the editor of left-wing independent newspaper Lankesh Patrike , founded by her late father , a renowned poet-turned-journalist.
Prominent Indian journalist and Lankesh Patrike editor Gauri Lankesh is shot dead by unidentified men outside her house in the city of Bengaluru.