Palakkad (Kerala) | A protest march taken out by the BJP activists to the office of Palakkad legislator Rahul Mamkootathil, who is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, turned violent here on Saturday.
Police and protesters engaged in a scuffle for some time as the activists tried to jump the barricade.
Police had to use force and pressed on with water cannons twice to disperse the protesters who climbed over the barricade.
Braving the rains, many agitators could be seen raising slogans against Mamkootathil by sitting atop the barricade, waving the saffron party's flags.
The protesters warned that they won't allow him to take part in the programmes in the constituency as an MLA anymore.
Police later forcibly took the protesters, including women, into custody and shifted them from the area.
Soon after the allegations against Mamkootathil cropped up, the BJP leadership here made it clear that they won't allow him to take part in any programme in the district in his capacity as an MLA.
Mamkootathil recently quit as Youth Congress state president after Malayalam actress Rini Ann George accused "a young leader" of a well-known political party of misbehaviour and subsequent protests by BJP and DYFI, the youth wing of the CPI(M). Subsequently, several women and a transgender person accused him of similar charges.
Later, Congress has suspended him from the primary membership of the party.
