Rift within Kerala Congress over woman's complaint against expelled MLA
KPCC president Sunny Joseph suggested that the second complaint sent to him appeared "well planned" and "well drafted".
The Congress in Kerala on Thursday showed signs of internal disagreement over the sexual-assault allegations against expelled MLA Rahul Mamkootathil, after two senior leaders expressed sharply different views on the complaint filed by a young woman.
KPCC president Sunny Joseph suggested that the second complaint sent to him appeared "well planned" and "well drafted", hinting that a "legal brain" may have been behind it. He also questioned why the complaint reached the media at the same moment it reached his office, asking what the intention might have been. "I said it was a well-planned, well-drafted petition," Joseph told reporters in Kannur.
Asked whether it was a planned petition, he said, "It can be interpreted that way too. The complaint reached the media at the same time it reached me. What was the intention behind that?" Although the police registered the second rape case against Mamkootathil after Joseph forwarded the complaint to the state police chief for investigation, his remarks about the complainant revealed unease within the state Congress over the allegations against the expelled MLA.
Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, took a very different stand, firmly backing the complainant. Responding to Joseph's comments, he said there was nothing wrong with a woman submitting a well-prepared petition.
"What is wrong with that? A well-drafted complaint is not an offence. Let the police investigate the complaint and find the truth. The police should also investigate why there was a delay in filing the complaint and explain it before the court. In any case, a delay does not make an offence cease to be an offence," Satheesan told reporters in North Paravoor, his constituency near Kochi.
In the first rape case, Mamkootathil was granted interim protection from arrest by the Kerala High Court and in the second he secured anticipatory bail from a sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram.
