MB Patil fake letter row: HC issues notice to Bengaluru police over FIR

The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to Bengaluru police over an FIR registered against Sharada Diamond, an engineer and BJP sympathiser accused of propagating fake news, under a section that does not exist in the Information Technology (IT) Act. Sharada was booked by police officials at Srirampura police station in the city under section 66A of the IT Act for posting a fake letter which she claimed had been written by Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil to Sonia Gandhi in 2017. Section 66A of the IT Act was made unconstitutional in 2015 by the Supreme Court. In spite of this, Srirampura police registered an FIR against Sharada on April 25 under the section. The FIR was registered based on a complaint by J Saravana, who alleged that the petitioner had posted the fake letter on her Facebook page on April 16 and also posted comments to defame MB Patil. Sharada was arrested for promoting the fake letter that talked about a meeting that a few ministers held with representatives of the “Global Christian Council” and “World Islamic Organisation” in 2017 about the strategy for the Karnataka Assembly Elections. (These organisations do not exist). The hearing in the case filed by Sharada was adjourned to May 14. Meanwhile, Hemanth Kumar, a journalist based in Bengaluru, Shruti Belakki, a resident of Dharwad and Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of Postcard News, a website notorious for publishing fake news, were also detained and questioned by the police over promoting the letter. Source: The News Minute