Kozhikode: The High Court of Kerala on Friday directed the Kerala Police to submit a progress report on the investigation on the WhatsApp screenshot that hit the social media space in Vadakara on the eve of election seeking vote for Congress candidate Shafi Parambil because he is a "devout youngster who prays five times a day", and calling his rival K K Shailaja of the CPM an "infidel female candidate".

The CPM's cyberspace had gone to town with the screenshot accusing the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) -- constituents of the United Democratic Front (UDF) -- of running a communal campaign for Shafi Parambil. CPM state committee member and former MLA from Kuttiadi K K Lathika shared the screenshot of the message on her Facebook page with the pithy comment "How communal".

The UDF alleged that the message purportedly written by MSF's Kozhikode district secretary Muhammed Khasim P K was fake and spread by CPM to polarise the voters of Vadakara in Shailaja's favour. The UDF and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) have not let go of the issue even after the election and routinely hold protests in Vadakara demanding action against the culprits. With the UDF and the LDF trading charges and police investigation heading nowhere, Khasim (28) approached the High Court on May 29 seeking direction to the police to find the source of the screenshot and take down the "fake message" on the Facebook pages of CPM supporters and leaders.

"I went to the court because they branded me communal to win an election. I have to clear my name," said Khasim.In the interim, he sought a progress report on the police investigation, said Khasim's advocate and IUML's state secretary Muhammed Shah. "The FIR was registered on April 25. It's been over a month and police have done nothing," alleged Shah. On Friday, May 31, Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas directed the State Police Chief to submit the report of the investigation done to date on the communal message by June 14.

Good candidates & bad campaigns
Murky allegations of morphed images forged messages and a bomb blast that killed a CPM worker and seriously injured another queered the campaign pitch in Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, which saw two MLAs -- Shailaja from Mattannur and Shafi Parambil from Palakkad -- taking on each other. During the campaign, Shailaja, the celebrated former Health Minister, had accused Shafi Parambil's team of sharing vulgar images on social media by morphing her photographs. Shafi has demanded an apology from her for making baseless allegations. The two leaders sent legal notices to each other. On April 5, a bomb went off while in the making, killing CPM activist Sherin and seriously injuring Vinish near Panoor in Kannur district but in Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency.

Communal campaign
On April 25, on the eve of the election, the incendiary message calling Shailaja a kafir started doing the rounds on social media."I first saw the fake message in my name on the Facebook page called 'Ambadimukk Sakhakkal Kannur'. It was around 3 pm on April 25. The Facebook page belonged to CPM supporters.

The post was deleted in one hour but by then many other CPM-supporting pages started sharing the screenshot," said Khasim, a native of Thiruvallur in Vadakara.

The message with the images of the Congress candidate and the EVM machine showing his position read: 'Shafi is a devout youngster. The other is a kafir (infidel) female candidate. Who should we vote for? One of our own. Think and vote.' The blatantly communal message was posted purportedly by Khasim in the WhatsApp group of 'Youth League Nidumbramanna'.
Nidumbramanna is a place 2km from Khasim's Thiruvallur.

Khasim said there is no such Youth League WhatsApp group in Nidumbramanna by that name. "It was a fake WhatsApp group and the fake message was posted in the group and a screenshot was taken and shared on Facebook for electoral dividend," he said.

As soon as he saw the message, he went to the office of the Kozhikode Rural District Police Chief to register a complaint. "It was around 6 pm. I was sent to Vadakara Police Station. I reached there by 9 pm but the Vadakar SHO (Sumesh T P) refused to register my complaint. I even gave him my phone for checking," said Khasim, who has a diploma in civil engineering from the University of Kerala. Around 11 pm on April 25, LDF's Vadakara parliament mandalam committee treasurer C Bhaskaran filed a complaint against Khasim and Vadakara police registered a case against him under section 153 A of the IPC for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion.

Police were not considering Khasim's complaint of identity theft, forgery and conspiracy to polarise the electorate. Later in the night, Muslim Youth League Nidumbramanna Shakha Committee general secretary Ismail M T filed a complaint with the police saying the WhatsApp group in which the alleged fake message was posted was fake, and Khasim's name had been defamed to create animosity in society.

On that complaint, Vadakara police registered a case against unknown persons under the milder Section 153 of IPC (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot) and Section 120 (o) of Kerala Police Act (causing nuisance through any means of communication). "These are minor charges.

We have specifically named the Facebook pages, including that of former MLA K K Lathika, which shared the fake screenshot but police have not mentioned that in the FIR," said Khasim.

Police investigation so far
The case was registered on April 25. On April 28, Cyber Police in the office of the Rural District Police Chief detained Khasim for four hours and inspected his phone, his advocate Mohammed Shah. Police said that they found nothing to establish that the impugned message was generated from Khasim's phone, he said. "We don't know if they will say that again. But that was what they said then. And that was why Khasim was not arrested despite the serious charge against him," said Shah.

After police found nothing in his phone, the UDF and its ally the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), founded by the slain T P Chandradrasekharan, staged a sit-in at the Kozhikode Rural District Police Chief's Office demanding action against the culprits. On May 9, the IUML took out a march to the District Police Chief's office. On May 11, at a convention in Vadakara, Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan alleged the CPM was resorting to a communal campaign in Vadakara fearing setbacks in the next Assembly election. "Everything was a CPM agenda for creating a chasm in society," he said. The UDF's state committee has decided not to let off this issue of fake screenshots, said IUML's Kozhikode district secretary Navas K K. "We will not let the CPM get away with this," he said. On May 28, a day before Khasim approached the High Court, Vadakara police led by Inspector Sumesh recorded the statement of CPM leader K K Lathika, who is the wife of CPM Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan. When contacted, Lathika said she too asked the police to find out the culprits behind the blatantly communal message. "The screenshot was shared widely on Facebook. I downloaded it from one page and posted it on my page to tell people how dangerous it is for our society to spread such a communal message. My post is still there on Facebook," she said.

She said a few days before her statement was recorded, the police called her on the phone, and she asked them why they were not able to find who posted the communal message in the WhatsApp group. "Police told me that it might have been posted by someone abroad. I asked them that question because the screenshot revealed a few other names in the WhatsApp group," said Lathika.To be sure, the screenshot of the WhatsApp group dismissed by the Youth League of Nidumbramanna as fake, showed only two names below the group name. The first name was Ashraf Thiruvalloor and the second name started with the 16th letter: 'PK Muhammad Khasim'.