Police waiting at his house, Kerala BJP leader P C George surrenders in court in hate speech case

On Friday, the Kerala High Court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea, saying he had violated bail conditions of a similar case in 2022.

Referring to the bail order from 2022, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan said if the court was to grant bail in such cases, it would send out “a wrong message to society”. In the 2022 case, the court had directed the seven-time former legislator not to make any statement that could amount to promoting religious enmity or outraging religious sentiments.

However, while participating in a TV channel discussion on January 5 this year, George had equated all Muslims in India with terrorists and demanded that they go to Pakistan.

Subsequently, Muhammed Shihab, a resident of Erattupetta, filed a police complaint under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections 196(1)(a) and 299 – pertaining to actions that promote enmity between groups and that outrage religious feelings, respectively – and also under Section 120(o) of Kerala Police Act against George.

The High Court had said that since George had violated bail conditions of the previous case, “If granted bail in this case, people may think that, even if the bail conditions are violated, they will get anticipatory bail from the court of law. Such a message should not go to society.”