'Hindu WhatsApp group': Police unable to confirm hacking, will look into more details

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Police said that no evidence of hacking has been uncovered in the creation of a religion-based WhatsApp group involving IAS officers. Meta, which owns WhatsApp, informed the police that the phone used to create the group indeed belonged to Industry Department Director Gopalakrishnan. In an email sent to the police, the company stated that they were not able to confirm that the phone had been hacked.

Police have again sent emails to Google and WhatsApp seeking more details. The police will send the preliminary report containing the explanation from Meta, to the government today. As Gopalakrishnan has removed the WhatsApp groups from his phone, the police are trying to gather details from Meta about the time and location of the creation of the group, its members, and messages. Police have taken custody of Gopalakrishnan's iPhone for forensic examination. Although Gopalakrishnan testified that he had not created any groups and that someone might have hacked his phone, the police have not taken his testimony at face value.

Police investigations have found no evidence to support Gopalakrishnan's claims. Authorities will also probe if the WhatsApp group based on religion was created to gain any professional advantage. Police are sceptical about why there was a delay in filing a complaint regarding the WhatsApp group, which was created on October 30 with Gopalakrishnan as admin.

Several senior IAS officers were in the WhatsApp group. Gopalakrishnan deleted the group and uninstalled WhatsApp from his phone after some members of the group flagged concerns about the seriousness of such a group.