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Court remands rape accused Palakkad legislator to judicial custody
Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, facing multiple rape allegations, has been remanded to judicial custody as protests demand his resignation.
Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, accused by multiple women of rape and forced abortion, was remanded to judicial custody on Thursday after his three-day police custody ended.
Mamkootathil, who has refused to resign as MLA so far, was produced before the Pathanamthitta first-class judicial magistrate at his residence. Since the SIT, probing the multiple cases of sexual assault involving the legislator, did not press for continued custody, the court remanded him to jail. He was sent back to the sub-jail in Mavelikkara where he had spent a day following his arrest.
A petition for bail filed by the MLA’s counsel is expected to be heard by the Thiruvalla first-class judicial magistrate on Friday.
The MLA has claimed that the allegations of rape raised by the complainant in the case are baseless and that they reportedly shared a consensual relationship.
Apart from the case, in which he has currently been arrested, the expelled Congress MLA also faces allegations of rape, forced abortion, physical assault and criminal intimidation in two other cases.
He has received protection from arrest in those cases from the courts.
The Yuva Morcha and the DYFI held protests outside the sub-jail in Mavelikkara and the General Hospital when Mamkootathil was brought for a medical check-up. They demanded that he resign as MLA.
Meanwhile, Fenni Ninan, an aide of the rape-accused Pallakad MLA, shared purported screenshots of WhatsApp chats between him and the survivor in the third rape case in which he claimed the woman wanted to meet the legislator one-on-one as recently as October 2025.
“I’m surprised that she lodged a complaint of rape dating back to April 2024. What’s the logic behind requesting a private meeting with the MLA more than a year later?” Ninan asked in a FB post, wherein he attached the screenshots.
The multiple sexual assault allegations against Mamkootathil, who was once a popular face of the party on television debates and considered close to Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan, had put the Congress in a tight spot ahead of the local body elections,which ended in a sweep for the UDF alliance.
Political rivals of the CPI(M) and the BJP had accused the Congress leadership of shielding the rape-accused MLA and shying from taking stern action against him.
