Congress expels Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil after court rejects anticipatory bail in rape case

The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on Thursday (December 4, 2025) expelled Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil from the party in a definitive attempt to draw a line under a serial sexual predation scandal that has haunted the United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition in Kerala since August.

The decision came close on the heels of a district court in Thiruvananthapuram rejecting the MLA’s anticipatory bail plea in a rape and coerced termination of pregnancy case based on a complaint filed last Thursday by a woman acquaintance of his. 

In a terse press release, KPCC president Sunny Joseph stated that Mr Mamkootathil’s continuation in the party had become “ethically untenable” in the wake of accusations of serial sexual predation. 

Matters reached a critical threshold for Mr Mamkootathil after a 23-year-old non-resident Keralite woman emailed the KPCC president on Tuesday, accusing the MLA of raping her after inviting her to a resort to discuss their prospective marriage in 2023. 

She claimed that she had braved the fear of being targeted on social media, as in the case of several other alleged victims, to blow the whistle on the KPCC leadership for allegedly sitting on sexual misconduct complaints against Mr Mamkootathil. 

Mr Joseph forwarded the complaint to the State Police Chief while denying the emailer’s allegation that the party had protected Mr Mamkootathil. 

An online meeting of the top KPCC leadership on Wednesday had decided to decouple the party from Mr Mamkootathil to end, what a party insider termed as “a seemingly endless march of shame.”

Moreover, he stated that the party could not risk being blindsided again by a new wave of sordid scandals or explosive revelations during the final phase of the local body poll campaign.

Bitter blow

For Mr Mamkootathil and his supporters, KPCC’s decision to ostracise the MLA has come as a bitter blow on a day when a district court in Thiruvananthapuram has posted his anticipatory bail plea in a rape and coerced termination of pregnancy for hearing. 

The expulsion was also a fall from grace for the young politician, whose meteoric rise in Congress was partly attributed to his social media success, built on an army of unofficial supporters who churned out hundreds of reels and slick edits of his punchlines and hit memes. 

However, the social media support became a curse for Mr Mamkootathil after many of his cyber backers turned against the KPCC leadership for suspending the MLA in August, after a series of sexual misconduct accusations threatened to chip away at the party’s public image. 

Congress’ women leaders, notably MLA Uma Thomas, Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan, and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala, emerged as early targets of vicious cyberattacks. 

Following his suspension, Mr Mamkootathil withdrew from public life, largely confining himself to his private residence in Pathanamthitta district. 

In September, Mr Mamkootathil gingerly attempted to claw back his political space by participating in the Assembly session as an independent member. 

Later, he became an almost constant, but relatively low-key, presence in Palakkad amid boycott threats from the BJP and the DYFI. He also towed along with Congress’s local body poll candidates, gladhanding his constituents and seeking votes for the party. 

A section of the Congress leadership defended Mr Mamkootathil, underscoring that no alleged victim had preferred a police complaint against him. Moreover, some Congress leaders noted that the State Police Crime Branch inquiry against Mr Mamkootathil had come to a dead end in the absence of an identifiable victim with a recordable complaint. 

However, matters took a sharp turn for Mr Mamkootathil last Thursday. An alleged victim contacted Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and filed a complaint of rape and coerced pregnancy termination against Mr Mamkootathil, prompting the MLA to withdraw from public life for the second time in the past five months. 

The victim reportedly stated that incessant vilification on social media and broadcasting her identity had prompted her to break her silence and approach the police. 

Meanwhile, the police have moved quickly to arrest Mr Mamkootathil. They have cast a dragnet for him in neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and issued a lookout notice to sea, air, and land ports via the Bureau of Immigration.