The controversial WhatsApp groups-Mallu Hindu Officers and Mallu Muslim Officers- were created using the same phone, according to the Forensic Science Laboratory of the Kerala Police. Sources in FSL said that a serious scrutiny of the phone belonging to IAS officer K Gopalakrishnan has shown that the phone number was not at all hacked and the groups would not have been formed without the concurrence of the person who owns the phone.

On 30th October two WhatsApp Groups were set up based on communal lines from the phone used by Gopalakrishnan, director of industries, government of Kerala. When some of the officers whose names figured in the WA Group Mallu Hindu Officers questioned the admin (none other than Gopalakrishnan) about the propriety of including their names in the Group, the IAS officer washed his hands off the controversy and said that his phone has been hacked. He also said that he had filed a police complaint against the hacking of his phone. Both the Groups have been taken off the cyberspace following widespread condemnation of the same.

Initial investigation by the Kerala Police with WhatsApp, Google and the Internet Service Provider proved that Gopalakrishnan’s phone was not hacked. They also established the fact that the Mallu Muslim Officers’ Group too was formed making use of the same phone and that too hours after the formation of the Hindu Officers Group. “It has been done to ward off any adverse comments arising out of the charge that a WA Group was formed to create a communal divide among the officers,” said a police official.

The initial investigation found that no unauthorized applications have been installed in the handset. Dr M G Gireeshan, a cyber expert and hackathon specialist, had said that hacking was possible when strange and unfamiliar applications were installed by the phone users.

If the findings of the FSL are true, Gopalakrishnan stands facing serious charges of attempting to divide the bureaucracy on communal lines destroying the secular fabric of the society. The officer remained incommunicado while his office staff said that he was travelling.