Gauri Lankesh wanted to reclaim her secular India 

Gauri Lankesh had got out of her car to open the gate of her house when three bike-borne assailants are said to have shot her from close range, killing her on the spot.

Fearless and a staunch critic of communal politics and polarization, she edited the Kannada tabloid Gauri ‘Lankesh Patrike’ and wrote columns for various publications. While some reports suggested that she had received threats to her life, Karnataka DGP Rupak Dutta denied any information from her about the perceived threat.

The news of her death spread like wild fire and friends and fans rushed to her house, stunned that such a killing could take place in Bengaluru, according to reports.

Lankesh was killed in a manner similar to the murder of rationalist and Kannada University VC MM Kalburgi two years ago. That murder remains unsolved and outraged admirers of Gauri Lankesh demanded that her killing not go unpunished.

She had been a critic of the BJP and had been convicted by a court last year in a defamation case filed by BJP MP Prahlad Joshi. Twitter erupted in shock and disbelief and the murder is being seen as a message to all independent journalists and dissenters.

Arnab Goswami on Republic TV highlighted a ‘property spat’ which, he suggested, could have been behind the murder.

During the last 20 hours of her life, she tweeted and re-tweeted the following :

In one of her last posts on her Facebook page, Gauri Lankesh shared a video put up by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor that showed Christian nuns in Kerala celebrating Onam. She wrote : “ KERALITES celebrating Onam. Religious differences be damned!!!!! this is the reason why they call their `country' (I call it country, did you notice cheddis??) as `Gods own country'. Please, my Mallu friends, please keep up your spirit of secularism. (PS: hopefully next time I am in God's own country, someone will get me nice Kerala beef dish!!!! And cheddis be damned!!!!)

The video she shared can be seen here :