Kerala High Court grants interim relief to P C George in hate speech case

The Kerala High Court on Monday restrained the police from arresting senior politician and former MLA P C George till May 26 in a criminal case registered against him for making a hate speechConsidering the anticipatory bail plea moved by George the high court granted him interim relief with conditions The court will take up the case on Thursday May 26George moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail days after a sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram denied him bail in the caseGeorge who has been untraceable since Saturday in his bail plea in the high court said the prosecution resorted to a pick and choose game and highlighted stray sentences from a 40minutelong speechKochi city police had registered a case against George on May 10 for his objectionable remarks during a speech which he delivered in connection with a temple festival at Vennala in Ernakulam districtGeorges anticipatory bail was dismissed by the sessions court on Saturday saying his comments prima facie appear to be of such a nature as to promote disharmony hatred and ill will between communitiesAt any stretch of imagination the offences as alleged will not be attracted in this case The prosecution resorted to a pick and choose game and highlighted certain stray sentences from a 40minutelong speech and unilaterally declared it as offensive which is not justifiable George said in his anticipatory bail plea in the high courtGeorge said he was expressing his anxiety over a negligible percentage of people involving in antinational terrorist activitiesThese are expressions of a patriot who only wanted the integrity of the nation to be kept intact and to highlight the need of corrective measures George saidHe also claimed in his plea that his observations were based on authentic statistics and some others were what he has pointed out in the Legislative AssemblyThe sessions court in its order had noted that the present speech was made by George within 10 days of his release on bail in the similar case registered at ThiruvananthapuramThe present case was registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 153 promoting enmity between different groups and 295A deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefsGeorge who was the chief whip when the Congressled UDF was in power had earlier sparked off a controversy by asking nonMuslims in Kerala to avoid restaurants run by the communityAddressing a programme organised as part of the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan in Thiruvananthapuram last month the former Kerala Congress leader had alleged that tea laced with drops causing impotence were sold in Muslimrun restaurants to turn people infertile in a bid to seize control of the countryAs the remarks triggered widespread political controversy a case was registered and he was arrested on May 1 but was released on bail by a court in Thiruvananthapuram on the same dayGeorge who represented the Poonjar constituency in the state Assembly for 33 years had lost his bastion to the Left Democratic Front LDF candidate in the 2021 Assembly polls in a triangular fightThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever