Bengaluru: A journalist was arrested on Saturday for allegedly circulating a "fake letter," purportedly written by home minister M B Patil to Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi in 2017 on religion tag to the Lingayat sect.

Patil had termed the letter fake and alleged that it was a conspiracy against him by his rivals. Inspector General of Police CID, economic offence wing and cybercrime Hemant Nimbalkar told PTI that Hemant Kumar was arrested here Saturday. Kumar is a special correspondent of a Delhi based English and Hindi magazine. Police in a release said Hemanth Kumar was arrested, "based on credible evidence corroborated by oral statement." He was produced before a court, which granted police custody of Kumar till April 30, it said.