With his bail denied on April 6, Hegde’s lawyer Tejasvi Surya mentioned, “This is a political witch-hunt, and it is clear that Congress workers or Congress-sponsored stooges are being used by the Siddaramaiah government to target Hegde.”

Surya, who can also be common secretary of the BJP youth wing in Karnataka, mentioned he wasn’t conscious of his consumer’s background however was combating the case “as a matter of principle”.

A detailed aide, Shakuntala Iyer, mentioned Hegde was in talks with BJP leaders for a ticket to combat the Assembly elections from his native Moodbidri. “But he was arrested before that.”

She additionally emphasised, as did BJP MP Prathap Simha, that whereas Postcard.information may need carried “unverified information, it did not manufacture any news or morphed photos”. “The definition of pretend information is multifold. We can’t simply name one thing pretend when it’s the reality,” Iyer mentioned.

The newest case in opposition to Hegde was filed by Prakash Raj, who has sought an investigation into two Postcard.information articles that “make shockingly inappropriate actor.tarnish [his] fame and have disturbed [his] private life”.

One such piece, carried on Postcard.information Kannada on October 2, 2017, mocks Raj for questioning the “silence” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the assassination of journalist Gauri Lankesh, “How can a man who left his wife and ran after a dancer after the death of his son dare to question Modi and Yogi?” the headline mentioned.

The actor’s two-year-old son had died in an accident in 2004. He separated from his spouse in 2009 and married choreographer Pony Verma a yr later.

“Postcard.information is a serial offender in relation to spreading pretend information. These articles have been printed final yr however there isn’t a info on the web site about their authors or the proprietor of the web site. When I heard that Hegde had been taken into custody due to one other pretend publish, I made a decision to file a criticism,” mentioned Raj.

Postcard.information can also be going through one other case, filed in December 2017, for a publish on legendary Kannada ladies warriors Kittur Rani Chennamma, Belavadi Mallamma and Onake Obavva.

An internet site run in three languages ​​— English, Kannada and Hindi — Postcard.information was arrange in 2016 by Hegde, Vivek Shetty and Ankita Lal. Despite its reputation in right-wing circles, not a lot is thought about Hegde, whose Twitter deal with @mvmeet has the bio: “Blessed to be followed by PM Narendra Modi.”

According to the police, Hegde is a B.Sc graduate, whose native place is Belvai in Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada district. “He lives in Mangaluru, and runs his web site from there. He has no workplaces wherever, although he has mentioned that his servers are in Thiruvananthapuram. Our investigations have revealed that he’s a member of a Hindu right-wing organisation,” DCP Crime Jinendra Kanagavi mentioned.

Bengaluru-based Iyer (Twitter deal with @shakkuiyer, additionally adopted by Modi), who calls himself “a family friend and a sister” to Hegde, described him as a proud Hindu activist and a fierce critic of the Siddaramaiah authorities. “He is being focused by the federal government as a result of he has been a really vocal voice in opposition to it. Especially throughout the Paresh Mesta killing, Postcard.information carried stories from the bottom which the mainstream media had blanked out,” she mentioned.

Mesta, 18, went lacking throughout a communal riot in Honnavar in Dakshina Kannada district in December final yr. His physique was discovered floating in a lake just a few days later. On December 11, Postcard.information English carried a bit titled, ‘Genitals lower, sizzling oil poured on eyes and face, head break up into two, situation of Dalit-Hindu activist Paresh Mesta, will the secular gang communicate up?’. It had 15,000 shares. Independent post-mortem stories, nevertheless, discovered no seen exterior accidents on Paresh’s physique or proof of mutilation.

Just a few days later, on December 14, a case was filed in opposition to Hegde in Karwar by Tehsildar Govinda Naik, accusing the web site of attempting to disturb peace and concord by way of one other article, titled ‘ISIS brutality adopted to homicide Paresh Mesta, however who gave directions to show it as pure loss of life?’. The piece refuted Mesta’s post-mortem report and alleged an try and “protect Islamic groups”. “Karwar police will also seek Hegde’s custody for investigation soon,” mentioned Inspector Shivakumar.

Iyer mentioned Hegde was once a businessmen buying and selling in RO water purifiers and helped run his brother’s inns in Daman, earlier than beginning the information portal. “He wished an area for folks like us to specific our opinions about what was occurring within the nation, past Facebook, He mentioned he wished anybody, and never simply journalists, to have a voice. He was additionally very agitated by the anti-Hindu insurance policies of the federal government. He has raised cash for all of the 22 Hindu activists killed in Karnataka beneath the Congress regime,” mentioned Iyer, who’s a enterprise strategist and advisor for startups.

Most of the contributors to Postcard.information, mentioned Iyer, have been “volunteers”. “They are not journalists at all. They are activists, very driven by the cause of defending Hindus.”