THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Election Commission of India has served a notice to BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai for the controversial speech he made while campaigning in Attingal constituency. The Commission called upon Pillai to reply within 24 hours of obtaining the notice.
Pillai in a controversial election speech on Balakot surgical strike said “Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and Pinarayi Vijayan are saying our soldiers have to go there and see the count of the dead, their caste, religion, etc. If it is Islam there are some signs also. If you remove their clothes you will be able to know.” He was heard saying like this in the video of the speech which was widely circulated on social media.
The police have registered a non-bailable criminal case against Pillai for hurting the religious sentiments of people. The case was booked by Attingal police on a complaint filed by CPM leader V Sivankutty. The case was registered under Sections 153 and 153A of the Indian Penal code for “Wantonly giving provocation with the intention to cause a riot” and “promoting enmity between different groups on religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.”
It may be noted the Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, had submitted a report to the Election Commission indicating Pillai had violated the model code of conduct.