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Rahul Mamkootathil | Photo Credit: K K Mustafah
Officials said the move assumes significance against the backdrop of the possibility of more comparable “me-too” disclosures surfacing in the public domain against him.
They noted that Ms. Poonguzhali has considerable experience as the nodal officer for victims who testified before the 2017 Justice Hema Committee, which recorded allegations of sexual favours for film roles and gender inequality and entrenched misogyny in the Malayalam film industry.
The Crime Branch had filed a first information report (FIR), accusing Mr. Mamkootathil of illegal detention and rape, in the court of the Judicial First Class Magistrate-III, on Wednesday.
In the court filing, the agency accused Mr. Mamkootathil of befriending the accuser on social media, proposing marriage, inviting her to join him at a homestay in 2023 to discuss their prospective alliance and raped her. She said she sustained serious injuries in the attack. The FIR stated that one Fenni Ninan drove her in a car to the homestay.
(Mr. Ninan, a close associate of Mr. Mamkootathil and Congress candidate in the Adoor municipality elections, has since denied the accusation and termed it a political plot.)
Officials said the police have traced the woman whose explosive email complaint to KPCC president Sunny Joseph resulted in Mr. Mamkootathil’s expulsion from the party on Thursday. Mr. Joseph forwarded the complaint to State Police Chief Ravada Chandrasekhar, resulting in the filing of a second rape charge against Mr. Mamkootathil.
Officials said the woman has reportedly expressed keenness to press charges and might give her sworn statement directly to a judicial magistrate in person or by audio or video statemen under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita(BNSS), an option permitted by law even if the person is not physically or mentally fit to appear before the court in person.
Investigators said, given that the passage of time could preclude direct evidence, including DNA and injury marks, they would back the woman’s testimony by building a chain of circumstantial evidence, including the cell phone location of the victim and the accused when the crime occurred.
Investigators said they would subpoena cell phone providers and seize the devices pertaining to the case for cyber-forensics examination.
Officials noted location-service-enabled mobile phone apps could also reveal the whereabouts of the accused and the woman at the time of the crime.
Along with the woman’s deposition, the police would record the woman’s accounts of the alleged crime to friends, identity witnesses, and scour for treatment records to build a watertight case, despite the two-year time-lapse between the alleged offence and the registration of the FIR.
K. Sajeevan, DySP, Crime Branch, is the investigating officer.
Published – December 05, 2025 12:27 pm IST
