Crime Branch FIR indicts Mamkootathil of grave crimes, including coercion to terminate pregnancy

The Kerala Police Crime Branch (CB) has accused Congress leader Rahul Mamkootathil, MLA, of grave charges, including coercion to terminate pregnancy, violation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, cyberstalking, and serial online harassment of women. 

The agency’s First Information Report (FIR), filed in the court of Judicial First Class Magistrate-III in Thiruvananthapuram, lists nearly 10 third-party complaints against Mr. Mamkootathil. The FIR does not mention any of the complainants as the victims. The petitioners include lawyers, women activists, and a few prominent writers. 

The complainants also demanded that the Kerala Police bring in the hospitals that supposedly conducted the allegedly illegal abortions and those who enabled the crime.

The CB stated that the petitions, including digital evidence adduced by the complainants, revealed cognisable offences that attracted the provisions of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). 

The agency traced the provenance of the case to a complaint filed by Shinto Sebastian, a lawyer, against Mr. Mamkootathil before the Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights. Subsequently, the commission forwarded the complaint to the State Police Chief (SPC).

The commission set October 9 as the deadline for the police to file their report on the matter, which the petitioner said possibly involved violations of the right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution and also infringement on the Juvenile Justice Act. 

The SPC transferred the complaints to the CB, which constituted a special team comprising cyber forensic experts to ascertain the veracity of the audio clips and WhatsApp chat records submitted as evidence by the petitioners. 

The agency was reportedly poised to serve notice on a set of women journalists who claimed to have met one of the alleged witnesses and later broadcast the person’s physical and mental trauma and social ostracism on conventional and broadcast media. 

Meanwhile, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Veena George stated that the government would provide legal, medical, and psychiatric support to the alleged victims. She termed the charges against Mr. Mamkootathil as grave. 

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary M.V. Govindan stated that the case reflected the Congress leadership’s “entrenched misogyny and feudal degeneracy.”

Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan countered that the Congress had taken an ethical stance on the issue, despite the lack of a specific complaint. He dared the CPI(M) to act similarly in comparable cases involving its party members.