The Kerala government suspended two IAS officers on Monday for disciplinary violations. The decision was taken by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the basis of a report from the chief secretary amid furore over the ongoing ‘religious WhatsApp group’ controversy.

The Kerala Police had conducted an investigation after K Gopalakrishnan filed a complaint about his WhatsApp account was used to create religion-based groups on the app. Reports suggest the phone had not been hacked. However Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner Sparjan Kumar stated that it remains unclear whether the device was compromised as it had been ‘reset’. 

Officers from various communities were added to the group — labelled as a Hindu community group. Gopalakrishnan however told the police that he had not added any officials to the group in question. He also 

Upon noticing this, the officer immediately lodged a complaint and dismantled the group. In his complaint, he stated that he had not added any officers to the group in question.