Bengaluru: The police had yesterday booked a fourth person on charges of allegedly sharing the fake letter, which purportedly written by State home minister M B Patil to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi two years ago on religious minority tag to the Lingayat sect, on her Facebook page.
The woman identified as Sharada Diamond is the fourth person to have a complaint registered against in the last five days for allegedly sharing and talking about the controversial letter, which is now part of the FIR registered by Srirampura police.
According to media reports, case under the Information Technology Act-2008 based on a complaint by J Saravana was registered against Sharada.
Shruti Bellakki, a BJP supporter from Hubballi, was arrested for allegedly circulating a video in which she is seen purportedly appealing to Lingayats to be cautious about the conspiracy against Hinduism to divide it by giving religion tag to the Lingayats and that it was being done for political gain.
Later Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of a rightwing news portal, was detained. The police are questioning him in connection with the letter. The letter had first allegedly surfaced on his website. The police have also arrested journalist and BJP sympathiser Hemanth Kumar for reportedly circulating the fake letter though social media.
During Karnataka assembly polls in 2018, the letter had first emerged and resurfaced during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Patil, who was the water resource minister in the previous Siddaramaiah government, had spearheaded the campaign for separate religion tag to the Lingayat sect, founded in the 12th century by social reformer Basaveshwara. Ahead of Assembly polls, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government passed a resolution recommending religious minority tag to Lingayat sect and sent the proposal to the Centre. The Centre had turned down the proposal. However, the home minister had claimed that it was a conspiracy against him and that the letter was fake.