Bengaluru: The City Crime Branch (CCB) police have arrested co-founder of online portal ‘Postcard News’, Mahesh Vikram Hegde on Thursday on charges of spreading fake and communally sensitive news and the same seems to have not gone down well with the BJP.
Party leaders took to Twitter to attack the state government for the arrest. Soon after Hegde’s arrest, Pratap Simha, BJP MP, launched an attack on the ruling Congress, calling it a “cowardly act”. By late evening “#ReleaseMaheshHegde” was trending on many groups that support the BJP. There was also a counter thread trending, “#KeepMaheshLocked.”
Several BJP leaders started a #ReleaseMaheshHegde campaign on social media sites. Among them was union minister Anant Kumar Hegde, who said that Siddaramiah was behaving in a dictatorial manner.
“Shame on the state government led by @siddaramaiah which is behavingin dictatorial terms in arresting @mvmeet. Ensure to follow the true democratic spirit in fighting us rather than doing a coward act. #ReleaseMaheshHegde,” he tweeted.
Karnataka BJP’s general secretary CT Ravi also condemned the shameless act of arresting the “nationalist” Hegde.
“I condemn the shameless act of arresting Nationalist @mvmeet by Coward Congress Government in Karnataka. In taking this desperate step against @BJP4India Supporters @siddaramaiah has proved that he has already lost the upcoming Assembly Elections,” he tweeted.
He also said that it may have to do with Hegde raising funds for two Hindu schools run by an RSS leader.
“Wondering if Nationalist @mvmeet is arrested because he ran a successful campaign to raise funds for the children of two Hindu schools run by @RSSorg Leader Sri @KalladkaBhat that were denied funds by Anti-Hindu Congress Government,” he wrote.
Why the arrest?
It was recently that the Postcard carried a picture of an injured Jain Digambar seer. The picture was captioned that Jain monk Upadhyaya Mayank Sagar Ji Maharaj was attacked by Muslim youth. It further read that nobody was safe in Siddaramaiah ruled Karnataka. However, the truth of the picture was that the Monk was injured in a road accident.
The same was tweeted on the Postcard News handle as well. This saw hundreds of re-tweets.
According to the police, on March 11, the monk was walking from Nanjangud to Kanakagiri, when nearing Kavalande village, a motorist rammed into the monk and others with him. The monk suffered injuries on his right arm and forehead.
