Bengaluru, April 24, 2019: Soon after Mahesh Vikram Hegde, co-founder and editor of postcard news, was arrested by CID Cyber wing, the BJP IT cell trended the hashtag #IStandWithMaheshHegde, here on Wednesday.
According to sources, he was arrested based on a complaint filed by Home Minister M B Patil at Adarshnagar police station in Vijayapura, in connection with a fake letter regarding Lingayat issue. The fake letter which had gone viral during 2018 Assembly polls had surfaced again right ahead of the second phase of Lok Sabha polling in Karnataka.
Among the ones tweeting with the hashtag included BJP leaders Shobha Karandlaje, CT Ravi and others, who attacked the State government over his arrest. The twitter handle of BJP Karnataka too stepped to his defence by retweeting a post from the Dakshina Kannada unit of BJP.
However, some of them were critical of the support extended by BJP to Hegde, maintaining that he was a regular purveyor of fake news.
Tweeting in support Karandlaje wrote: Karnataka govt again arrested @mvmeet today!
The only crime of Mahesh Vikram Hegde is that, he has been exposing the lies of the Gandhi family.
Height of Vendetta politics, Coalition govt is imposing real emergency.
Karnataka govt again arrested @mvmeet today!
— Chowkidar Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) April 24, 2019
The only crime of Mahesh Vikram hegde is that, he has been exposing the lies of Gandhi family.
Height of Vendetta politics, Coalition govt is imposing real emergency.
Shame!!#IStandWithMaheshHegde pic.twitter.com/cByWkAJBpo
Ravi tweeted: Realizing that their Unholy Alliance Government is on the death bed, CM @hd_kumaraswamy and @siddaramaiah have let loose State Police on Nationalists. I urge them to stop playing "Neech Politics" & do something good for the People in the remaining days. #IStandWithMaheshHegde
Not a word from @ShobhaBJP when Udupi was reeling under problems due to heavy rains in 2018 . Now she scream her help for a fake new perpetrator. She has disappointed the ppl who voted for her once again. https://t.co/JXaolLEZ49
— Lavanya Ballal | ಲಾವಣ್ಯ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ್ (@LavanyaBallal) April 24, 2019
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal was critical of the support extended to him. She tweeted: Not a word from @ShobhaBJP when Udupi was reeling under problems due to heavy rains in 2018. Now she screams her help for a fake new perpetrator. She has disappointed the ppl who voted for her once again.
It can be recalled that Hegde was arrested in March last year for spreading a fake news that a Jain monk was attacked by Muslims in Bengaluru. In reality, the monk was injured in a bike accident. He had used an image of the accident to paint a picture of attack by Muslims.