Thiruvananthapuram: Senior BJP leader P C George was Monday remanded in custody till March 10 by a court in Erattupetta in Kottayam district for the hate speech case he had made on a TV channel.
He had been evading arrest after the High Court denied his anticipatory bail plea. On Monday, he appeared before the local court and surrendered.
He was taken for mandatory checkup and later taken into custody.
George, a former MLA, was accused of delivering a hate speech against a minority community during a TV channel discussion. The case was based on a complaint by Muhamed Shihab, a Muslim Youth League leader, who alleged that George made remarks capable of inciting religious hatred.
Earlier, the Kerala High Court had rejected George’s anticipatory bail plea saying that it will give a wrong message to the society.
While participating in a TV channel discussion on January 5 this year, George had reportedly said: “All Muslims in India are terrorists and communalists. Not a single non-terrorist Muslim lives in India. Muslims are looters who plunder the country’s wealth. Lakhs of Hindus and Christians have been slaughtered by Muslims to create a Muslim state. All Indian Muslims should go to Pakistan. All Muslims are communal demons and scoundrels”.
Coming down on the statement, the High Court said “politicians should be a role model to the society” and that the tendency nowadays to make statements based on religion, caste, etc “should be nipped in the bud” as they are against the basic structure of the Constitution.
