Overview
- Police detained Mamkootathil from a Palakkad hotel around midnight and produced him in Pathanamthitta, where a magistrate sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.
- The latest FIR stems from a Pathanamthitta woman now abroad who alleged rape under a promise of marriage, coerced abortion, and financial exploitation, with her statement recorded via video conference.
- The Crime Branch’s Special Investigation Team, led by AIG G. Poonguzhali, is probing all three cases and has collected electronic records, financial transactions, DNA samples, and a preserved dress for forensic tests.
- Courts had earlier granted interim protection from arrest in one case and anticipatory bail in another, with a High Court hearing scheduled for January 21 on earlier matters.
- Congress has expelled Mamkootathil and publicly distanced itself as the Kerala Assembly Speaker seeks legal opinion on possible disqualification, while protests were reported during his production in court.