Kerala MLA Rahul Mamkootathil booked for sexually abusing woman
The Kerala Police on Friday registered a case against legislator Rahul Mamkootathil on charges of sexually abusing a woman and forcing her to undergo miscarriage without her consent.
The development comes after the woman met Chief Minister Pinarayi VIjayan at his office on Thursday and complained against the Palakkad MLA. Subsequently, the CMO handed over the complaint to police top brass, which in turn recorded her detailed statement.
The Congress had suspended Mamkootathil from its primary membership in August and removed him from the post of Youth Congress president, following multiple allegations of misconduct from women. The scandal threatens to shadow the Congress amidst the local body elections slated for December 9 and 11. However, Mamkootathil has been active in campaigning for party candidates in local bodies under his Palakkad Assembly constituency.
The issue took a sudden twist a few days ago after a TV channel telecast the social media chats and audio clips allegedly attributed to Mamkootathil and a woman in which the MLA was heard threatening the woman to undergo miscarriage. In the leaked out social media chat, the legislator was seen soliciting the woman for sexual intercourse expressing his intention to have a baby.
On Friday, the Valiyamala police under the Thiruvananthapuram rural district filed the First Information Report (FIR) against Mamkootathil and handed over the case to Nemom police station for further proceedings.
Soon after TV channels flashed the news about the woman meeting the Chief Minister, Mamkootathil who was campaigning for Congress candidates in Palakkad, closed his MLA office on Thursday and remained incommunicado. In a social media post, the MLA said he would resort to legal remedy.
The CPI(M) and BJP have sought the arrest of Mamkootathil in the wake of registering the FIR. In August when the scandal emerged, the police had registered criminal cases against Mamkootathil on charges of stalking and repeatedly causing annoyance to women. However, these cases were registered based on complaints from political workers and hence the police could not proceed further for want of complaints from victims.
