'Mallu Hindu' WhatsApp group row: Cyber forensics to examine IAS official's phone, mail sent to Google

The police team probing the complaint filed by the Kerala IAS officer K Gopalakrishnan saying that his phone was hacked to create religion-based WhatsApp groups has sent an email to Google and WhatsApp to know if an external link or app was activated in the phone.  The cyber forensics will also examine Gopalakrishnan's mobile phone on Wednesday to find out if the phone has been hacked. The phone was received from Gopalakrishnan on Tuesday evening. He filed a complaint on hacking of device after a row erupted over formation of WhatsApp groups based on religion. A WhatsApp group named 'Mallu Hindu officers' was created on October 31 using the mobile phone number of Gopalakrishnan. 

Some of the IAS officers who were added to the group expressed reservations and Gopalakrishnan came up with an explanation that his phone was hacked. In his message to group members, he said, " It appears that someone has taken control of my mobile device, creating 11 groups and adding all my contacts. I have uninstalled the app and manually removed the groups from my WhatsApp and I will be changing my phone soon''.

Thiruvananthapuram city police commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said that police already received a mail from WhatsApp which said that only live groups can be tracked and that no information can be provided on deleted groups. " Another mail has been sent to Google and WhatsApp to detect any suspicious activity from an external link or malware on the phone. Our first priority is to know whether the mobile phone was hacked. The cyber forensics team is on it," said Sparjan Kumar. 

An official said that they will analyse the phone using tools to detect if the device was accessed from any other location. IP details will be obtained from WhatsApp and device will also be analysed for presence of third party links.