Woman submits sexual assault complaint with Kerala CM against Rahul Mamkootathil
Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 27 (PTI): A woman on Thursday submitted a sexual assault complaint with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against suspended Congress MLA Rahul Mankootathil, shortly after a fresh purported audio recording of a conversation between the two surfaced online.
A source said the woman met Vijayan at his office here and submitted the complaint. The complaint has been forwarded to the State Police Chief for further action.
The move came months after Mankootathil faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
Reacting to the development, the Palakkad MLA said he would fight the case legally.
"As long as I am convinced that I have done no wrong, I will continue to fight legally. I will prove everything in the court of law as well as in the court of the people. Truth will prevai..," he wrote on his Facebook page.
State Health Minister Veena George expressed solidarity with the victim, saying Kerala is with her.
"Dear sister, Do not lose strength...Kerala is with you..," she said in a social media post.
Earlier, the Crime Branch had opened a case based on the initial audio clips and the chat messages. That case was triggered by an email sent to the police headquarters by a few individuals, all of them third parties, as the woman herself had not come forward at the time.
Two days ago, a new purported audio clip was released in which he was heard insisting that he wanted a child, before later urging her to undergo an abortion.
He was suspended from the primary membership of the Congress on August 25 following the allegations.
The Palakkad MLA had earlier resigned as Youth Congress state president after Malayalam actress Rini Ann George accused "a young leader" of a well-known political party of misbehaviour, triggering protests by the BJP and the DYFI, the youth wing of the CPI(M).
Subsequently, several women and a transgender person levelled similar allegations against him.
Mankootathil was elected as MLA in November last year in a by-election for the Palakkad seat, following the election of party leader and then sitting MLA Shafi Parambil as Lok Sabha MP from Vatakara in the general election.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
