Bangalore: The founder of a web portal accused of peddling fake news and radical Hindu propaganda has been arrested on the charge of posting a distorted report on Facebook about a road accident involving a Jain monk.

Thursday night's arrest of Mahesh Vikram Hegde, Postcard News founder who is followed on Twitter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, set off a social-media storm in his support and prompted Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde to accuse Karnataka's Congress government of a "dictatorial" act.

Mahesh has been charged with promoting enmity between groups, criminal conspiracy, common intent and dishonest use of information technology.

Bangalore police commissioner T. Suneel Kumar said the arrest was related to a report the portal had carried on its Facebook page on March 18, saying a young Muslim had attacked Jain monk Munisri Upadyaya Mayank.

Police sources said a drunken motorcyclist had hit the monk and his associates while they were returning from a pilgrimage to Shravanabelagola in Hassan district on March 13.

The portal's post had a picture of the monk, who suffered minor bruises, and text that read: "Very sad news. In Karnataka Jain muni attacked by Muslim youth.... No one is safe in (chief minister P.C.) Siddaramaiah's Karnataka."

Mahesh has been remanded in judicial custody for three days.

A police statement said the fake news was aimed at creating tension between communities and maligning the state government.

"Thousands of people have seen the fake news and even shared it on Facebook and Twitter. In connection to this, the city crime branch has booked the owner of the portal and arrested him," it said.

The BJP jumped to Mahesh's defence. "Shame on the state government led by @siddaramaiah which is behaving in dictatorial terms in arresting @mvmeet. Ensure to follow the true democratic spirit in fighting us than doing a coward act," minister Hegde tweeted.

Twitter was flooded with fervent appeals for Mahesh's release under the hashtag #ReleaseMaheshHegde.

Social media activist Dhruv Rathee tweeted: "The whole BJP IT cell and even ministers have come out in support of fake news mastermind so they can all keep their fake news factory running & can continue spreading communal lies."

Last May, fake news buster altnews.com had published a long list of allegedly false reporting by Postcard News, placing it among the top 500 websites in India in terms of traffic.

On Friday, Postcard News' ranking on the tracking platform Alexa was 4,892 in India, with 79 per cent of its traffic from India and more than 6 per cent from the US.