The Kerala High Court on Friday granted bail to Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) leader PC George in a hate speech case, Live Law reported. The 70-year-old had been arrested and sent to judicial custody on Thursday.
At an event organised under the aegis of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Thiruvananthapuram on April 29, George had asked the audience to avoid restaurants run by Muslims claiming that they serve tea laced with a drug that causes impotence.
This was done to turn non-Muslims infertile so that Muslims could “seize control” of the country, the former MLA had said. George had also urged Hindu and Christian women to have more children.
The High Court granted bail to George taking into into account his age and the fact that the maximum punishment under the charges against him is five years of imprisonment, Bar and Bench reported.
Justice Gopinath P, however, directed him not to make any speech or statement that could be punishable under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) or 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court added that the prosecution could seek to have his bail cancelled if he violates this condition.
George was first arrested on April 30. On May 1, a Thiruvananthapuram court had granted him bail, but a magistrate court cancelled his bail on Wednesday as Kerala Police produced video footage to show that he had violated his bail conditions.
At an event in Kochi on May 8, the Kerala Janapaksham (Secular) leader had allegedly spoken about the “growing menace” of Islamic jihad and “love jihad”, Live Law reported. “Love jihad” is a term for a conspiracy theory espoused by Hindutva activists, who claim that Muslim men lure women from other religions to marry them in order to later convert them to Islam.
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