The high court ordered interim stay on the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police investigation against Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of online portal 'Postcardnews', in connection with the case against him for publishing fake news to disturb the communal peace.
On Tuesday, Justice Aravind Kumar heard the petition filed by Hegde and ordered the stay on the lower court proceedings in criminal case numbers 778/2018 till the further orders and also stayed the investigation.
Justice Kumar further ordered notices to the CCB cybercrime police and complainant Gafar Baig in the case.
The advocate representing the petitioner submitted that the Congress government in the state was filling unnecessary cases against Hegde and he had not published fake news.
The CCB cybercrime cell arrested Hegde in Bengaluru on March 29 for posting a fake news post. In the video, Hegde claimed that a Jain muni was attacked by a Muslim youth near Nanjangud and people were unsafe in the Siddaramaiah dispensation. The post was shared more than 6,000 times.
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.
There are four cases filed against Hegde over publishing fake news.
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