More intriguing facts emerge about hartal call via WhatsApp

Amarnath Baiju, from Thenmala Ottakkal Railway Station, arrested in the case of giving a call for hartal on 16 April via social media, turns out to be cyber worker of Sangh parivar organizations.

Amarnath's father Baiju is among the prominent figures who sowed the seeds of RSS-BJP organizations in the eastern hilly regions of Kollam District.

Amaranth got into the Sangh stream through his father Baiju who was a core volunteer of RSS. Both had worked actively in BJP too. It is learned that Baiju was the one who took care of the cyber activities of the BJP in the high ranges of the district. Both had earlier worked also as trainers of RSS.

Lately, both Baiju and his son fell out with RSS following which Amarnath became a member of Shiv Sena. He also had a spell in the Gulf for employment. Amarnath, who does not have much social contacts in his home town, however had an active presence in social media and used to post messages in many WhatsApp groups.

However, Sub Inspector of Police, Thenmala said that the police has not registered any case against Amarnath for posting the hartal call or on other charges. All the same, other wings of police are gathering detailed intelligence about Amarnath.

Foolproof planning; but voice messages turned spoiler

In the case regarding hartal call via social media, the accused were caught by a loophole of voice messages. The arrested were caught when about to meet again for the conspiracy. The voice clips on WhatsApp implicate them in efforts to deliberately cause division between communities. Amaranth, the mastermind is heard to tell in one of the voice messages, that the state has to be divided into two parts for group messages and for this the groups will have to be widened.

As per hints received, there are signs of clear planning behind the incidents. WhatsApp groups were provided with district-wise links and messages and posts creating religious enmity were provided in time. Messages provoking group members to more responses and violence, were posted at regular intervals.

More facts will become clear only through further investigations. There were attempts by the higher ups of bureaucracy to not reveal the sangh parivar nexus of the accused, right on the day prior to the arrest. That pressure got lessened with the emergence of facts through the visual media. Although there are indications that there will be a special investigation team (SIT), there is reportedly strong pressure to see that the enquiry does not extend to the sangh parivar. There is also an allegation that the very constitution of an SIT is part of this move.