Days after a sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram, PC George moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail.
Kochi:
The Kerala High Court on Monday restrained police from arresting senior politician and former MLA PC George till May 26 in a criminal case registered for hate speech.
Considering the anticipatory bail plea moved by Mr. George, the High Court granted him interim relief with conditions. The court will hear the matter on Thursday (May 26).
Mr George moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail, days after a sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram refused him bail in the case.
Mr George, who has been missing since Saturday, said in his bail plea in the High Court that the prosecution resorted to a “pick and choose game” and uncovered a “stray sentence” from the 40-minute-long speech.
The Kochi city police had on May 10 registered a case against George for making objectionable remarks during a speech he made in connection with a temple festival at Vennala in Ernakulam district.
Mr George’s anticipatory bail was rejected by a sessions court on Saturday, observing that his remarks prima facie appear to promote enmity, hatred and ill-will between communities.
“At any limit of the imagination, the alleged crime would not have attracted this case. The prosecution resorted to a pick and chun game and uncovered a few sporadic sentences from the 40-minute-long speech and unilaterally declared it offensive which That is not justified,” Mr. George said in his anticipatory bail plea in the High Court.
Mr George said he was “expressing his concern over a negligible percentage of those involved in anti-national terrorist activities”.
“These are expressions of a patriot who only wants to uphold the integrity of the nation and highlight the need for corrective measures,” George said.
He also claimed in his petition that his “remarks were based on authentic data” and there were others which he had pointed out to the Legislative Assembly.
The sessions court, in its order, had said that the present speech was given by George within 10 days of his release on bail in a similar case registered in Thiruvananthapuram.
The present case has been registered under sections 153 (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295A (deliberate and malicious act, with intent to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code. it was done.
Mr George, who was the chief whip when the Congress-led UDF was in power, had earlier courted controversy by asking non-Muslims in Kerala to avoid community-run restaurants.
Addressing an event organized as part of the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan in Thiruvananthapuram last month, the former Kerala Congress leader had alleged that “impotence-causing drops” in Muslim-run restaurants to make people “infertile”. Tea is sold. “Seize control” of the country.
As the remarks sparked widespread political controversy, a case was registered and he was arrested on May 1, but released on bail by a Thiruvananthapuram court the same day.
Mr George, who represented Punjar constituency in the state assembly for 33 years, lost his stronghold in the 2021 assembly elections to a Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in a triangular fight.
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