Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday delivered a calculated yet explosive statement, declaring that the ongoing sexual assault cases against expelled Congress MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil are likely to witness “far more serious revelations” in the coming days. Addressing the media after casting his vote in Kannur, the veteran CPI(M) leader cautioned that what has surfaced so far may represent only a fraction of the alleged misconduct, thereby elevating a local political scandal into a potential statewide crisis for the opposition Congress.

Vijayan revealed that several women who claim to have been victimised remain gripped by fear, believing that speaking out could endanger their lives. “Many women still feel helpless and are terrified they would be killed if they come forward,” he said, pointedly questioning how individuals occupying “responsible positions” in a national political party could allegedly indulge in systematic predatory behaviour while enjoying institutional protection until the allegations became impossible to suppress.

Dismissing attempts by Congress state president Sunny Joseph to brand the second complaint as a politically engineered document, Vijayan countered that the FIR demonstrated clear legal drafting and could not be waved away as mere fabrication. He accused the Congress leadership of rallying behind “real sexual predators” and attempting to discredit survivors, warning that the public would reject any effort to shield the accused through technical or political arguments.

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The 36-year-old former Palakkad MLA presently faces two separate police cases: the first accuses him of rape followed by coercion to terminate a pregnancy, while the second details repeated sexual assault under the false promise of marriage. Having evaded arrest for days, Mamkoottathil eventually obtained conditional anticipatory bail in the second case from a lower court, but the Congress high command moved swiftly to expel him in an apparent damage-control exercise that has failed to quell public outrage.

With the Chief Minister openly hinting that more complainants are weighing whether to approach the police, the scandal now threatens to spiral into a defining moment for Kerala’s opposition politics. The episode has already exposed deep fault lines within the Congress’s Kerala unit and intensified demands for accountability, potentially reshaping public perception of the party ahead of crucial local body elections and the 2026 assembly contest.

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