Fake voter ID card case: Crime Branch raids houses of Rahul Mamkoottathil’s YC loyalists

Pathanamthitta: The Crime Branch team probing the fake voter ID case related to the Youth Congress election raided the houses of the Youth Congress workers who are the loyalists of Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkottathil at Adoor here on Friday. Manorama News reported that the probe team is likely to raid Rahul’s house too and seize the phones of Youth Congress members close to him.

Meanwhile, the Crime Branch on Saturday sent a notice to the MLA summoning him for an interrogation related to the fake voter ID card case. He has been asked to appear for the questioning on Saturday. But sources close to Rahul claimed that he did not receive any summons. 

The Crime Branch decided to question him after recovering a voice clip from the phone of Abhinand Vikram, the third accused in the case. It is learnt that Rahul's name was mentioned in the phone conversation related to the alleged voter ID fraud.

A year ago, the Museum Police had interrogated Rahul in the case. However, he claimed innocence and told the media that he had been summoned as a witness.

A few days back, Rahul had resigned as Youth Congress state president after being accused by several women of sending obscene messages through social media. On Monday, the Congress suspended him for six months in an attempt to contain the damage from the mounting allegations against the young legislator.

According to the case, fake Election Commission voter ID cards were created and handed over to Youth Congress members ahead of the organisational elections. In November 2023, the Museum Police registered a case based on a complaint filed by the Chief Election Commissioner.

Initially, four Youth Congress workers — Abhi Vikram, Feny, Binil Binu, and Vikas Krishna — were arrested from Pathanamthitta in connection with the case. Police reportedly seized 24 fake ID cards from them, along with laptops and mobile phones, during raids at their residences. Cyber experts later helped investigators recover deleted files of the forged identity cards from these devices.