The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: One of the accused men in the 2017 murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh has joined the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Shrikant Pangarkar, who was arrested in 2018 for his alleged role in the conspiracy to murder Lankesh, joined the Shiv Sena on Friday (October 19), ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections. He was granted bail by the Karnataka High Court last month, reported The Indian Express.
Pangarkar, who was a municipal councillor of the undivided Shiv Sena in Jalna between 2001 and 2006 had left the party in 2011 and joined the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti.
“Pangarkar is a former Shiv Sainik and has returned to the party. He has been given responsibility of the Jalna Vidhan Sabha poll campaign… He has been working for the party. He has been released by the court and has come out of jail after completing the judicial proceedings,” said former state minister Arjun Khotkar, in whose presence Pangarkar joined the Shiv Sena.
Pangarkar is also an accused in the 2018 Nalasopara arms haul case where it was alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to disrupt the Sunburn music festival held in December 2017 as the accused thought that it was against Hindu culture. For this purpose, pistols, airguns and petrol bombs were procured.
In the Gauri Lankesh murder case, Pangarkar is accused of arranging firearms and attending a training camp.
Recently, two men who are accused of killing journalist Gauri Lankesh were given a grand welcome by Hindutva groups in Karnataka after they were granted bail.
Well-known journalist and editor Lankesh, a household name for readers in Karnataka because of her sharp writing and bold views, was shot dead at her residence in Bengaluru late on September 5, 2017.
She was editor of the weekly Lankesh Patrike – a magazine that has been described as an “anti-establishment” publication – and had come under attack for her views against the communal politics of the Sangh parivar in Karnataka.
The chargesheet in her murder case had said that the assassination was an “organised crime” carried out by people associated with the Sanatan Sanstha, an extremist right-wing Hindutva organisation.