Police fail to confirm hacking of IAS officer’s phone in row over religious WhatsApp group

The row over the alleged formation of a WhatsApp group on religious grounds by a high ranking IAS official continued to resonate in Kerala on Saturday. The Kerala Police on Saturday said that the phone of the IAS officer, whose WhatsApp account was used to create a religious group, was completely reset and therefore, forensics could not ascertain whether it was hacked as claimed by him. The Thiruvananthapuram City police found no evidence suggesting that the mobile phone of K. Gopalakrishnan, Director of Industries and Commerce, was hacked. 

District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram City) G. Sparjan Kumar submitted the findings of the cyber forensics team to State Police Chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb, stating that the inquiry did not yield any information to prove that Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s mobile phone had been infected by malware, as alleged by the IAS officer.

Phone formatted

“He (Mr. Gopalakrishnan) had admitted that the phone had been formatted. This made it impossible to detect any signs of cyber attack in the device. Besides, we could not get any useful information from WhatsApp. The company maintained it could provide only details of existing groups, and not deleted ones” Mr. Kumar told The Hindu.

The police had launched the investigation following a complaint by the IAS officer alleging that his personal WhatsApp number was hacked and used to create a religious group. Mr. Gopalakrishnan had lodged a complaint and dismantled the group, stating that he had not added any officers.

Cong. charge

Reacting to the day’s development, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was turning a blind eye to the infiltration of the administrative service by fundamentalist elements. “It was CPI leader Annie Raja who first raised the allegation that the police force was being infiltrated by the RSS. Now the IAS has also been infiltrated, yet no action has been taken. Is this going on with the connivance of the Chief Minister, the LDF government and the CPI(M)?”, he asked.