Kasaragod: On the day Kerala Police booked Palakkad MLA and former Youth Congress president Rahul Mamkootathil on charges of rape, sexual exploitation, coerced abortion and criminal intimidation, Kasaragod MP Rajmohan Unnithan cautioned Congress leaders and workers against rallying behind him. “Carry filth, and you’ll stink too,” Rajmohan Unnithan said on Friday.

On Wednesday, former KPCC president and Kannur MP K Sudhakaran told reporters that he would stand by Mamkootathil and wanted the Palakkad MLA to actively participate in Congress programmes, even as he conceded that the young leader had made mistakes he must now set right.

Sudhakaran keeps changing his views, and that was why the All India Pradesh Congress Committee (AICC) removed him as the president of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), Unnithan said, and dismissed Sudhakaran’s statement that Mamkootathil was suspended by the party’s primary membership without consulting him. “All leaders of the party, including Sudhakaran, were consulted and the decision was unanimous,” Unnithan said.

The Kasaragod MP also mocked Sudhakaran for saying he would inquire into the allegations against Mamkootathil. “What authority does he have to conduct an inquiry? The victim has met the Chief Minister and given her complaint. The inquiry will start now,” he said, referring to the police investigation.

The Congress suspended Mamkootathil from the party’s primary membership, removed him from the parliamentary party, and stripped him of the Youth Congress presidency in August 2025, when allegations of sexual impropriety first surfaced. But after a brief lull, he re-emerged at party programmes and official events, attended Assembly sessions, and was spotted campaigning for Congress candidates in the local elections in Palakkad.

Unnithan says what Mamkootathil is facing today is “the fruit of what he sowed”. The survivor went to the Chief Minister with a formal complaint only because he relentlessly challenged her through the media that there is no complaint against him, the senior leader said. “He should not have gone to the Assembly after he was suspended. Later, he kept attacking the victim and kept provoking the media, questioning him. He and he alone is responsible for forcing the victim to go to the chief minister,” said Unnithan.

When such serious allegations are raised against him, Mamkootathil should have kept his head low, said the outspoken MP. That’s what Kovalam MLA M Vincent did when he faced a sexual harassment case, said Unnithan. Congress MLA Vincent was arrested in 2017 after he was accused of rape by a 51-year-old woman. “The Kovalam MLA stayed away from all controversies, without talking about the victim or the media, he maintained self-restraint. Because of that, he could contest and get elected to the Assembly again,” said Unnithan.

But Mamkootathil, Unnithan said, “resorted to heinous methods and engaged a PR team to prove that he enjoyed more influence among people than any other Congress leader in the state”. His PR team also attacked female Congress leaders who questioned him, said the MP.

If Mamkootathil had accepted the decisions of the KPCC and the parliamentary party and stayed away for some time, he could have come back after some time, said Unnithan. “Now, he has put himself in a position where he cannot make a comeback.  The Congress party is not responsible for where he is today,” he said and urged the Congress leaders, “who helped him, overtly or covertly”, to change their stance. “All Congress workers should stand by the party’s decision. The party should also not back off from its decision. It was the right decision,” he said.