Online Defamation of Sexual Assault Survivor: Court Denies Bail to Rahul Easwar

Thiruvananthapuram: The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Rahul Easwar, who was arrested for allegedly insulting on social media the young woman who filed a sexual assault complaint against Congress MLA Rahul Mankootathil. Rahul Easwar has been in judicial custody for seven days.

In court, Rahul Easwar’s lawyer argued that he had only read out portions of the FIR in his video and had not made any derogatory remarks about the survivor. The defence maintained that there was no intent to insult her and said Rahul Easwar was willing to remove any video considered objectionable. The court, however, questioned how the FIR in a case involving offences against women could be treated as a public document.

The prosecution firmly opposed the bail plea. Additional Public Prosecutor Arun submitted that withdrawing the video after circulating content that maligns the survivor carries no significance. He also pointed out that Rahul Easwar had not cooperated with the investigation even while in police custody and had acted in ways that aided accused MLA Rahul Mankootathil in the sexual assault case.

The prosecutor further informed the court that RahulEaswar refused to provide the password to the laptop seized from him, causing serious obstruction to the investigation. Such conduct, he said, was unjustifiable and amounted to challenging the legal system.

While the defence claimed that Rahul was “not of sound mind,” the prosecution argued that his actions reflected deliberate and calculated intent. The police have now filed a petition seeking his custody once again.