KOCHI/T’PURAM: The High Court on Monday granted interim bail till Thursday to former MLA PC George in a case registered in connection with the hate speech he allegedly made at a temple festival in Vennala, Kochi. Justice Gopinathan P granted interim bail saying George should not make statements in public or before the media.
At the hearing, counsel P Vijayabhanu submitted that George was a 72-year-old who had served as MLA for 33 years. Besides, he was suffering from age-related ailments. He would be put to prejudice if he was not granted anticipatory bail. The counsel said George’s custodial interrogation is not needed. The prosecution had adopted a pick-and-choose game and highlighted certain stray sentences from a 40-minute speech and declared it offensive which is not justifiable, he said. He was expressing his anxiety over a negligible percentage of people involved in terrorism.
The court said the bail order would not affect the consideration of the prosecution’s petition for cancellation of the bail granted to George in a similar case registered in Thiruvananthapuram. The Judicial First Class Magistrate court-II examined the video clip containing the hate speeches George has made during the Ananthapuri Hindu Mahasammelan at East Fort in Thiruvananthapuram and the Vennala temple.The videos were played in the chamber of the judge where a public prosecutor and George’s lawyer were also present. The court had on Saturday deferred the case to Wednesday for the verdict on the bail cancellation petition filed by the prosecution.