Newly elected Youth Congress State president, Rahul Mamkootathil, turned up at the Museum police station in Thiruvananthapuram on November 25 for “questioning” in connection with a high-profile criminal case relating to the alleged use of digitally counterfeited Election Commission of India (ECI) voter identity cards, ostensibly as proof to validate the identity of “phoney electors”, in the recently concluded online Youth Congress organisational elections.
Mr. Mamkoothathil told television journalists outside the station house that the police had summoned him as a witness under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code and not as a suspect.
He said the police had called him at short notice. “I did not seek more time though I had other programmes because I have nothing to hide.”, Mr. Mamkootathil said.
Mr. Mamkootathil said the police showed undue haste in acting on the complaints filed by Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) State President V. K. Sanoj and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State President K. Surendran.
“The political nexus and intent are clear. The police could arrest and jail me. But, I will seek legal recourse in courts with a clear conscience”, Mr. Rahul said.
The police had earlier arrested four Youth Congress workers hailing from Pathanamthitta, alleged to be proximate to Mr. Mamkootathil.
The YC leader has not denied the charge. But he added that the organisation would disavow wrongdoers.
The police said in a court filing that investigators had stumbled upon incriminating digital evidence that pointed to the use of a mobile phone application to generate fake voter ID cards in significant numbers.
Mr. Surendran and Mr. Sanoj had, almost simultaneously, moved the Chief Electoral Office, Sanjay Kaul, the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the State police against the Youth Congress. Mr. Kaul termed the allegation grave and demanded a report from the police.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State Secretary M. V. Govindan termed the crime as treason and a well-entrenched conspiracy to sabotage future general elections.
Mr Vijayan hinted in Wayanad earlier that the State police had brought Youth Congress leaders working at different tiers in the organisation under the ambit of its probe. He said the suspected forgery had national security implications, and Central agencies were also involved in the investigation.
Mr. Govindan alleged that persons in the top Congress and Youth Congress leadership were complicit in the electoral offences.
He said the offence had opened the door for other malefactors to use similar digital technologies to generate fake election cards in enough numbers to influence the outcome of polls, especially in tightly contested constituencies.
Earlier, Mr. Surendran had alleged on X (formerly Twitter) that Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan and Congress Working Committee member K. C. Venugopal “were aware” of the offence. Congress later said it would sue Mr. Surendran for libel.
The police case has come as a blow to Congress’s attempt to showcase the YC elections as a telling example of inner-party democracy and an end to the epoch of nominated committees.
The scandal also broke at an inopportune moment for the party as it upped the ante in the war of wits with the government.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran had admitted earlier that the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership had received complaints about using dubious means to tilt the Youth Congress electoral field. “The party would not support wrongdoers”, he had said.
