Kerala MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, who faces multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and was expelled from the Congress, was arrested late on Saturday night from a hotel in Palakkad in the latest rape case registered against him.
This is the third rape case against Mamkootathil. It was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a woman from Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. Police said Mamkottathil allegedly invited the married woman to a hotel and raped her, before later allegedly forcing her to undergo an abortion.
His arrest in the third case comes even as a court has granted him protection from arrest in the other cases.
Police caught him off guard from a hotel in Palakkad, giving little opportunity for the MLA to go into hiding as he had done last year. Later, he was taken to Pathanamthitta, where his arrest was recorded.
Mamkootathil, who had been the Kerala state president of Youth Congress, was booked early last month on charges of allegedly raping a married woman and forcing her to undergo an abortion. Close on the heels of the first complaint, another woman levelled allegations of sexual abuse that took place in 2023. In both cases, the court had granted him protection from arrest.
In the first case, the High Court had last week allowed the complainant to implead in Mamkootathil’s pre-arrest bail application, which the court will consider again on January 21. In the second case, the district court in Thiruvananthapuram had granted him relief.
