Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 9: The personnel of the cyber crime police station here have arrested a person relating to a complaint of character assassination filed by union minister, D V Sadananda Gowda. The said fake news was uploaded in social website by making it look like having been published by a leading Kannada daily.

The arrested person has been identified as Basavaraj Kallur (45) from Lakshmeshwar in Gadag district.

Sadananda Gowda had, in his complaint filed on November 1, said that a post, carrying fake news about him, which was made to look like a news item appearing in a popular Kannada daily, had been uploaded on the internet with the specific aim of indulging in his character assassination. Cyber crime station inspector, K S Yashwanth Kumar, had registered the first information report. A team led by Kumar had spread out a net to nab the culprit.

Sadananda Gowda

On the basis of some clues provided by the minister along with the complaint, and also the Facebook link, the police found the accused from Lakshmeshwar and seized his cellphone. He was aggressively questioned and then sent to judicial custody. The police have been continuing with their efforts to find other accused, said senior police officials.

Basavaraj, it is found, does not have any proper employment and he attends to works like writing application forms for people visiting government offices, and getting certificates made for PAN card, ration card, and other things. He is addicted to Facebook, WhatsApp and other such things. He reportedly confessed that he had uploaded a derogatory post about Sadananda Gowda received on his mobile phone to Facebook account without checking about its veracity. The police said that his cellphone has been seized, investigation is continuing, and the person who originally created this fake news would be found out and booked shortly.