Thiruvananthapuram: The government may take action against K Gopalakrishnan, the director of the industries and commerce department, who is facing allegations of creating a WhatsApp group based on religion.
Chief Secretary Sharada Muraleedharan has sought a report from state police chief S Darvesh Saheb. A forensic examination earlier revealed no evidence of Gopalakrishnan's phone being hacked. The Chief Secretary sought a report after City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar submitted a report to the DGP in this regard.
Gopalakrishnan had filed a complaint about hacking the device after a row erupted over the formation of a WhatsApp group named 'Mallu Hindu officers' was created on October 31 using his mobile phone number. Some of the IAS officers who were added to the group objected to the nature of the group. In his report, the commissioner said the cyber forensics team could not determine whether the device was hacked or not as it was formatted.
Sparjan Kumar said that the police also did not receive any useful information from Google or WhatsApp to find out if any third-party app or malware was installed on Gopalakrishnan's phone. Police had checked two phones, including an iPhone the commerce director used. Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, told the police that only live groups can be tracked and that no information can be provided on deleted groups.
Meanwhile, it has been decided to seek an explanation from Agriculture Department Special Secretary N Prasanth, who described his superior officer as mentally ill. Prasanth had insulted Additional Chief Secretary A Jayathilak through a Facebook post, calling him a ‘psychopath.’ Prasanth's insult came while a report was filed by Jayathilak against him regarding the Unnathi initiative, which was under the consideration of the Chief Minister.
News reports recently emerged that the files related to Unnathi (Kerala Empowerment Society), an organisation formed for the welfare and implementation of various schemes for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, are missing. Jayathilak has submitted a report to the Chief Minister stating that Unnathi's functioning has come to a standstill.