A woman who recently accused a Congress MLA of sexually and physically assaulting her multiple times alleged there was tremendous pressure from quarters close to the lawmaker to withdraw the complaint or accept Rs 30 lakh as hush money.

The young woman, who had already recorded her statement before a magistrate in Thiruvananthapuram and the local police station, told reporters on Wednesday that Eldhos Kunnapilly, Congress MLA from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, had sexually and physically assaulted her on several occasions and had been threatening her to withdraw her complaint lodged last month.

She accused a woman Congress leader from Perumbavoor of threatening her with arrest following her complaint. She also alleged that Kunnapilly had threatened to enmesh her in a “honey trap”.

The complainant, who appeared before reporters with her face fully covered, said residents of Kovalam had called the police when Kunnapilly allegedly beat her up on September 14 in public after she refused to join him at a nearby guesthouse. The MLA, the woman said, told the police patrol that she was his wife.

“He then drove me around in his car in the city (Thiruvananthapuram) for three to four hours and took me to my place where he physically assaulted me,” she alleged.

The woman said she accompanied him to Kovalam after he threatened to create a scene after turning up uninvited at her home in Peta. “He forced me to go with him (on September 14) after turning up at my home (where she lives alone) fully drunk and threatened to create a ruckus if I didn’t. But he beat me up in the car and later when I refused to go to the Kovalam guesthouse. That was when the locals called the police.”

The woman admitted being “friends” with the MLA since July. “I had first met him through his then personal assistant who was a friend of mine but had no communication at all until July this year when we became friends,” she said.

She approached the city police commissioner on the advice of the women’s cell in September. “I first contacted the women’s cell and they advised me to write to the police commissioner since the accused is an MLA (and hence a powerful man).”

The lawmaker has been booked under IPC Sections 354 (assault or criminal force on woman to outrage her modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 362 (abduction) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation).

While the state Congress unit is yet to comment on the allegations, senior lawmaker Ramesh Chennithala told reporters that an internal inquiry would be conducted. “The KPCC (Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee) has formed a commission to examine the matter. Further action will be taken after we receive its report. It is not our policy to commit atrocities against women.”

State CPM secretary M.V. Govindan drew attention to the legal and moral issue since the accused is an MLA. “There is also a moral question since the accused is a people’s representative. It is the Congress that needs to take a call based on their moral compass, while the law will take its own course in the case.”