The Crime Branch on Wednesday registered a case against Rahul Mamkoottathil and began an investigation into the Palakkad MLA's alleged attempts to stalk women on social media and for sending messages and making calls in such a way as to threaten a woman to opt for abortion compulsorily.

The case was registered just hours after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that all possible legal steps would be taken against Mamkoottathil. "Whatever is legally possible will be done," the CM had said during his post-Cabinet briefing on Wednesday. The CM had termed as "criminal thinking" Mamkoottathil's remark over the phone that it was easy for him to do away with a woman if she refused abortion.

The case has been registered on the basis of Section 78(2) and 351 of Bharathiya Nyaya Samhitha and Section 120(O) of Kerala Police Act. 

Section 78(2) deals with stalking. Under this, any man who follows a woman and contacts, or attempts to contact such woman to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such woman or monitors the use by a woman of the internet, e-mail or any other form of electronic communication, commits the offence of stalking will be sentenced to a jail of three years. 

Section 351 is criminal intimidation. The jail term can extend up to two years.

Section 120(O) in Kerala Police Act, 2011, kicks in when any man, through any means of communication, makes himself a nuisance to any person by repeated or undesirable or anonymous call, letter, writing, message, e-mail or through a messenger. The jail term for the offence is one year. 

The Crime Branch has taken up the case on the orders of the State Police Chief, Ravada Chandrasekhar. The SPC's decision is based on the complaints he had received, which, on examination, were found to involve cognisable offences. This means that the police can arrest the offender without a warrant and begin an investigation without a magistrate's permission.