Kerala Suspends Two IAS Officers Amid Row Over Religious WhatsApp Group

The Kerala government on Monday suspended the Indian Administrative Service officer, K Gopalakrishnan, for creating a WhatsApp group called “Mallu Hindu Officers”. The action after the police debunked the IAS officer's claim that his phone had been hacked.

Kerala IAS officer K Gopalakrishnan

The order directing his suspension said the government was of the view that the WhatsApp group “was intended to foment division, sow disunity and break the solidarity within the cadres of the All India Services in the state".

The order further said that the officer's act was prima facie found to be creating "communal formations and alignments within the cadres of the All India Services".