SIT Seeks Seven-Day Custody of Expelled Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil in Fresh Rape Case

Kerala: The SIT probing the sexual assault case against Congress-expelled MLA Rahul Mamkootathil on Monday sought his seven-day custody from a court in Thiruvalla.

He was arrested in connection with a rape case based on a fresh complaint against him by the Crime Branch team of the Kerala Police. Mamkootathil was taken into custody from a hotel in Palakkad at midnight on Saturday and was taken to the Armed Reserve Camp in Pathanamthitta. 

Following interrogation, the MLA will be produced before the Thiruvalla Magistrate, the Kerala Police said.

Earlier in December 2025, the investigation into the first alleged rape case against Mamkootathil was handed over to the State Police Crime Branch team. A special team led by Assistant Inspector General G Poonguzhali is now probing both the cases, one of which was previously being investigated by the Thiruvananthapuram City Police Commissioner. Poonguzhali was already heading the inquiry into the second rape case.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had reasoned that there was a possibility of "more serious revelations" emerging in the case.

‘Get Pregnant’ To ‘End It’: His Shocking Statements 

The first case against Mamkootathil was filed by a woman accusing the MLA of alleged rape and coercion to terminate pregnancy in 2024. This was followed by a second complaint from another woman who alleged sexual assault after he promised to marry her. In her complaint, the woman claimed that Mankootathil called her to a homestay on the pretext of marriage and then raped her. She stated that Mankootathil "brutally assaulted" her and even pressured her to conceive. The survivor also claimed she did not file a police case earlier out of fear.

The allegations surrounding the suspended Kerala Congress MLA Rahul Mamkootathil deepened after a set of audio clips and WhatsApp chats surfaced in which he can be heard pressuring a woman to become pregnant and later verbally harassing her when she told him she was one month pregnant.

According to the newly surfaced WhatsApp exchanges, Mamkoottathil allegedly instructed the woman to “get ready to become pregnant” and explicitly told her not to use contraceptive pills.

The emergence of these fresh clips has intensified the ongoing Crime Branch investigation. Earlier, an audio clip in which the MLA purportedly forced the same woman to undergo an abortion triggered a case under Sections 78 (stalking) and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Section 120(O) of the Kerala Police Act relating to electronic harassment.

A day after a series of audio clips and WhatsApp chats surfaced against suspended MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, the woman who accused the Congress MLA has filed a complaint with the chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, demanding action.

While she was reluctant to file the complaint earlier, she has now reached out to the authorities mere days after the leaked audio clips and chats became public. In her complaint, she alleges that Rahul Mamkootathil raped her under the pretext of a false promise of marriage and later forced her to undergo an abortion.

This is not the first time that Mamkootathil has been accused of problematic behaviour. Just a few months back, he had to resign from his position as the State President of the Youth Congress amid the allegations of obscene conduct filed.

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