Postcard News founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde deatined by Karnataka cops over circulation of fake letter in the name of the Karnataka home minister in his website.
The founder of Postcard News Mahesh Vikram Hegde was detained by Karnataka cops after a fake letter in the name of the Karnataka home minister MB Patil circulated in his website. The letter said to be written on the Lingayat issue was addressed to Sonia Gandhi by the Karnataka minister in 2017. Mr. Hegde was arrested yesterday by the Coorg police under a team headed by Chandra Gupta IPS while he was in Kodagu.
The letter written as to divide the Lingayat community, the worshippers of Lord Siva had the sign of MB Patil and carried the letterhead of Bijapur Lingayat District educational Association (BLDEA) where he is the president. the letter talks about the meetings of ministers with two institutions which actually do not exist, i.e., the Global Christian Council and World Islamic Organisation.
The letter was published by Post Card News before the 2018 elections in Karnataka legislative assembly and was shared by the Karnataka unit of Bharatiya Janata Party.The fake letter was at first brought to notice by fact checking news portals like BoomLive and Alt News in 2018. The letter again made the rounds on April 19, 2019 as it got published in the Hubbali edition of Vijaya Vani, the Kannada newspaper.
BJP leaders have taken to twitter to express their solidarity with Mahesh Vikram Hegde with the hashtags #IStandWithMaheshHegde.
In 2017,an article published on the website about Chennamma, Chittor queen (18th century) created much outrage.