FIR registered against MLA Rahul Mamkootathil for stalking women

Palakkad (Kerala), Aug 27 (PTI) A case was registered against Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil on Wednesday by the Kerala police for various offences, including stalking and harassing women on social media.

The development came hours after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram that all possible legal steps would be taken in connection with the allegations against Mamkootathil.

The Crime Branch wing of the police registered the case and launched an investigation on the instructions of state DGP Ravada A Chandrasekhar, a statement issued by the State Police Media Centre said.

The case was registered after it was found that complaints received by the DGP included commission of cognizable offences, it said.

The FIR was registered under sections 78(2) (stalking) and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 120 (o) (causing, through any means of communication, a nuisance of himself to any person by repeated or undesirable or anonymous call, letter, writing, message, e-mail or through a messenger) of the Kerala Police Act, it further said.

Crime Branch Thiruvananthapuram Range DySP C Binukumar is in charge of the investigation, the statement said.

Mamkootathil had recently quit as Youth Congress state president after Malayalam actress Rini Ann George accused a young leader of a prominent political party of misbehaviour, triggering protests by the BJP and DYFI, the CPI(M)'s youth wing. He was also facing an internal party probe.

Subsequently, several women and a transgender person came forward with similar allegations.

Following the release of audio clips of a purported conversation between the MLA and a woman, the Congress suspended him from the party's primary membership. PTI HMP HMP ROH