KOCHI: The police on Tuesday submitted crucial information in a case related to “kafir” remarks circulated on social media during the Vadakara Lok Sabha election. The police stated that verification of the mobile phone owned by Ribesh, a witness in the case, revealed that the communal post was posted by him on the WhatsApp group ‘Red Encounters’ on April 25.
However, Ribesh could not reveal where he obtained the post. The police seized his mobile phone and sent it to the District Forensic Science Laboratory, Kozhikode, to examine whether the post was created by him or downloaded from another source.
The police filed the report in response to a petition filed by P K Muhammed Khasim, a leader of the Muslim Youth League (MYUL), seeking a fair probe into the criminal conspiracy behind the circulation of the fake screenshot.
Sunil Kumar N, Inspector, Vadakara police station, said that a report had been submitted to the JFCM court, Vadakara, to issue summons against Aswin Madhusoodhanan, nodal officer of Facebook in India, to direct him to produce the details of the originator of the post on Facebook/WhatsApp in India. The reply in this regard has not been obtained to date.
On July 25, the details of Profile Data Records containing two verified mobile numbers of the Facebook account ‘Poralishaji’ were received. On verification, it was revealed that both SIMs were owned by the same person named Vahab. Vahab told the police that he posted the communal message on the Facebook account of ‘Poralishaji’ on April 25 at 8.23 pm.
He also said that he got the message through WhatsApp posts shared by various persons. Police also seized Vahab’s mobile phone and sent it for examination. The police also recorded the statement of Maneesh, the admin of ‘Ambadimukku Sakhakkal, Kannur’.
He revealed that he received the controversial post on April 25 at 2.34 PM on the Whatsapp group ‘RED BATTALION’ which was posted by one Amal Ram. Subsequently, Maneesh posted the same on ‘Ambadimukku Sakhakkal, Kannur’ on the same day. But that day itself, Maneesh withdrew the post because of suspicions regarding its authenticity.
The role of the accused persons named in the FIRs registered in this incident is still under investigation.
The police also stated that the Facebook authorities were not taking any steps to remove the communal post from the account of ‘Poralishaji’ despite the repeated requests made in this regard. Hence, the Facebook company named ‘Meta Platforms inc.’, which is responsible for doing this, is included as the third accused in this case.