THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amidst allegations from some quarters that there was no public prosecutor present when Kerala politician P C George was produced before a magistrate after his arrest for controversial remarks against Muslims, state Law Minister P Rajeev said the government will examine why it happened.
Rajeev, speaking to reporters, said that the government will look into the matter and examine it from all angles to find out what had really happened and why. He was responding to a query that there were allegations that the prosecutor was not present and what action was the government going to take regarding that.
The minister said that his experience, from his days of student politics, has been that if the public prosecutor was not there in court, when they were produced before the magistrate, then they were directly sent to jail.
Nevertheless, the government will be taking a strict stand on the issue, he added.
George was taken into custody early Sunday morning and taken by road to Thiruvananthapuram where he was arrested formally for the offence of promoting enmity between different religious groups under Section 153A of the IPC -- a non-bailable offence.
However, within a few hours of his arrest he was granted bail by a magisterial court which led to many people questioning how he was granted the relief so quickly when the offence was non-bailable.
P K Firos -- the General Secretary, Muslim Youth League, Kerala State Committee -- had claimed in a Facebook post that the entire episode starting from George being taken into custody was a drama as the public prosecutor allegedly did not oppose the grant of bail, according to what the 70-year old politician told media.
Some others alleged that no prosecutor was present at all to oppose the grant of bail to George.
George, the former Kerala Congress politician, had sparked off a controversy by asking non-Muslims in Kerala to avoid restaurants run by the community.
Addressing a programme organised as part of the ongoing Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan here on Friday, he had claimed that he had heard that tea laced with drops causing impotence were sold in Muslim-run restaurants to turn people infertile in a bid to seize control of the country.