BENGALURU: On Friday, the High Grounds police arrested Gangadhar Amalajeri (30), a native of Rabakavi in Bagalakot district, and Ajith Shetty Haranje (40) of Bramhavara in Udupi, for morphing photos of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and actress Radhika and spreading fake news on social media and a news portal claiming they were visiting a resort in Udupi.
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According to the police officials, a case was lodged on Wednesday when the morphed photos went viral on social media after the portal uksuddi.in published it. The media secretary in the CMO, who noticed the fake news, approached the police and registered a complaint.
In the preliminary investigation, it was revealed that Gangadhar, who works in an MNC and also runs the news portal, had downloaded old photos of the CM and the actress and morphed them to make it seem that they were entering a resort. The duo had also claimed the CM had scolded the scribes who had taken the photos. After a day, Shetty posted the fake news on his Facebook page and tagged his friends, police said.
Amid the investigation, Gangadhar said he posted it to make his portal popular. Shetty, who owns a garment business, wanted to damage the Karnataka’s CM’s image. He has put up several posts on Facebook against the present government, police said.
