Fake news targeting Muslims: 'Postcardnews' owner Mahesh Hegde held in Bengaluru

DH News Service, Bengaluru, Mar 30 2018, 9:47 IST
Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of the website Postcardnews. Source: Facebook.

Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of the website Postcardnews. Source: Facebook.

The cybercrime cell of the Central Crime Branch in Bengaluru on Wednesday arrested Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of the website Postcardnews for posting a fake news post that went viral on social media.

Hegde claimed in the video that a Jain munni was attacked by a Muslim youth near Nanjangud and people are unsafe in the Siddaramaiah dispensation. The post was shared more than 6,000 times.

Hegde was arrested following a complaint by Gafar Baig, a 48-year-old resident of Whitefield, while the police are also on the lookout for the portal's two news managers - Gaurav Pradhan and Deepak Shetty - who were also named in the complaint.

Sleuths said Jain munni Upadhye Mayank Sagar was knocked down by a bike on March 11, following which he was treated for injuries to his right shoulder, forehead, face and elbow.

Despite knowing that the munni had met with an accident, Hegde posted: "Very sad news, yesterday in Karnataka Jain Muni attacked by Muslim youth... No one is safe in Siddaramaiah's Karnataka."

"When news like this starts going viral, you know that elections are round the corner and the usual suspects are rolling out their polarization strategy," he further wrote in the post.

Hegde and Pradhan, who was caught earlier for spreading fake news, made similar claims on Twitter, while Shetty was one of the first to share the information on Facebook.

Baig lodged a complaint with the cybercrime police, observing the post going viral.

Hegde, who is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter, was defended by the BJP leaders including Parliament members Pratap Simha, Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Maheish Girri.




On May 2017, 'altnews' which track fake news had written that Postcard news is "mass producing fake news." Most of the stories they listed out were either communal or political. Another fact check website, boomlive.in on February 2018 wrote about another report published on Postcard news which was intended to flare up communal tensions in Tamil Nadu.

On December 1, 2017, altnews reported that an FIR was lodged against the admins of Postcard news for derogatory comments allegedly made against Kittur Rani Chennamma, Belavadi Mallamma and Onake Obavva- the three women warriors of Kannada history. The articles were published on postcardkannada.com and shared on the Facebook pages ‘I support Pratap Simha’ and ‘Pratap Simha for CM’ which were administered by them.