K. Gopalakrishnan
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Thiruvananthapuram City police in Kerala on Friday (November 22) initiated a preliminary inquiry against former Director of Industries and suspended IAS official K. Gopalakrishnan for allegedly creating a ‘communally divisive’ group for bureaucrats titled ‘Mallu Hindu’.
The City Police Commissioner of Thiruvananthapuram, Sparjan Kumar, confirmed to The Hindu that the police initiated the exploratory inquiry based on legal opinion and public complaints. The Assistant Commissioner, Narcotic Cell, is heading the prefatory probe.
On November 11, the Kerala government suspended Mr. Gopalakrishnan from service following an inquiry by Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan.
Ms. Muraleedharan found the IAS officer prima facie guilty of “fomenting division, sowing disunity and breaking the solidarity of the All India Service cadre in the State.”
The government also accused Mr. Gopalakrishnan of “creating communal formations and alignments within the All India Service cadre.”
After the creation of the WhatsApp group sparked a politically tempestuous controversy that raged on conventional and social media, Mr. Gopalakrishnan claimed that anonymous persons had hacked his mobile phone, created the group and added contacts without his consent or knowledge.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition sought to weaponise the controversy against the government by accusing the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) of “permitting Hindu right-wing groups to exert a chokehold over the State’s secular bureaucracy.”
Nevertheless, an inquiry headed by Mr. Kumar rebuffed Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s protestations of innocence. The Commissioner’s cyber cell found no evidence of hacking in Mr. Gopalakrishnan’s mobile phone.
Moreover, the investigators concluded that Mr. Gopalakrishnan had repeatedly reset the phone to factory settings before handing over the device to the police for cyber forensic examination.
Legal jeopardy
Mr. Gopalakrishnan could face serious legal jeopardy, including possible charges of destruction of evidence, fomenting enmity between different groups of people and violation of the IT Act if the police enquiry revealed a cognisable offence and resulted in the registration of a first information report (FIR).
The police have tentatively set a deadline of 10 days for completing the initiatory investigation.
Published – November 22, 2024 12:58 pm IST