In a development that has provided the Opposition Congress ammo to slam the government and left the ruling CPI(M) red-faced, the police on Tuesday told the Kerala High Court that the communally charged message which made the rounds days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Vadakara and termed Left candidate K K Shailaja as “kafir (traitor)”, first appeared on a pro-Left social media group. “The communal post was posted in the WhatsApp group ‘RED ENCOUNTERS’. A person named Ribesh, son of Ramakrishnan, who posted the screenshot in the group, did not reveal the source of the message and hence his mobile phone has been sent for forensic examination,” the police told the court while quoting statements of multiple witnesses. Claiming that the probe has exposed the “heinous act” of the CPI(M) to create communal polarisation in society, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly V D Satheesan said, “It has shown the CPI(M) will resort to dirty tactics for votes. They tried to create a communal divide in Kerala and their actions tantamount to extremism. The police, despite knowing who is behind the fake screenshots, are afraid to take action.” On the other hand, despite the Left maintaining a stoic silence on the development, Shailaja on Wednesday demanded those who made the fake screenshot to be brought to book. “Genuine Leftists cannot create such a screenshot and circulate it. I had asked Lathika (wife of CPI-M Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan) why she shared them. The party’s leadership in Kannur has rejected the groups which circulated them,” she said. The message, which first appeared on social media on April 24 – two days before the Vadakara seat went to the polls in the second phase – referred to Congress Vadakara candidate Shafi Parambil as “a devout Muslim who offered prayers five times a day” and urged people to “vote wisely”, sparking off a slugfest between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). The CPI(M) used the screenshot to attack the Congress and accused it of soliciting votes by stoking communal sentiments. The Left also accused Muhammed Khasim, a worker of UDF ally IUML, of being behind the “heinous act intended to foment communal polarisation”. Khasim was booked following a complaint by the Left. Though the UDF denied the allegations, the issue had continued to simmer even after the polls, which Parambil had won by a margin of over 1 lakh votes from a constituency which has over 31% Muslims. The case took a turn after Khasim moved the High Court claiming threat to his life and seeking a fair probe into the case. The police subsequently recorded the statement of Lathika, who had posted the communal message on her Facebook account with the comment, “What kind of communalism is this?” The police, during the probe, then found that the fake screenshots first appeared in two pro-Left social media accounts – “Ambadi Mukku comrades” and “Poralishaji”. The police also told the court that the accused’s identity could not be ascertained as data requested from Facebook and WhatsApp had not been received yet. According to the police, Meta Platforms Inc, Facebook’s parent company, was also made an accused in the case as it did not take any steps to remove the post from “Poralishaji” despite repeated requests.
