'Postcardnews' owner Mahesh Hegde arrested over fake news

Bengaluru: Founder of right-leaning Postcard News Mahesh Vikram Hegde has been captured by the Karnataka police under Sections 153A, 295A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code. Section 153 of IPC deals with attempt to apromote enmity between religious groups, Section 295A addresses deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage sentiments, and Section 120B of IPC refers to criminal conspiracy.

It is learnt that he was arrested for the fake news which recently went viral on Postcard site asserting that Muslim youth had assaulted a Jain sage, though the truth was that the sage had met with an accident. A case has been enrolled against Hegde over this fake news, and he was arrested on Thursday March 29. He was on his way back after meeting state BJP president BS Yedyurappa when the police arrested him.

Postcard News, that is known for frequently distributing and publishing phony news particularly those that are communally disruptive in nature, is controlled by Mahesh Hegde. In November 2017, a FIR had been enrolled against Postcard News for distributing a claimed derogatory post.

BJP MP Pratap Simha, who is said to be a close associate of Mahesh Hegde, tweeted about the arrest, assaulting the Congress government. But, he got the certainties wrong, as in opposition to his claim, Hegde was not captured under Section 66 of the IT Act however under the IPC segments.