Senior Kerala politician and BJP ally P.C. George, who is accused in a hate speech case, was arrested on Wednesday after a court cancelled his interim bail.
The arrest was made hours after a magistrate’s court in Thiruvananthapuram cancelled the bail granted to him after the prosecution produced digital evidence of George flouting one of the conditions by making another inflammatory speech.
The leader of the Kerala Janapaksham (Secular), George was booked in two hate speech cases in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam.
The seven-time MLA was whisked away in a police vehicle to a police camp in Ernakulam. He was taken into custody from Palarivattom police station where he was summoned to record his statement in the case booked in Ernakulam.
Notorious for his comments against Muslims, George was arrested on May 1 by Thiruvananthapuram police in a hate-speech case. The police had registered the case based on digital evidence of George making a series of derogatory comments against Muslims while addressing the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan in the Kerala capital.
A magistrate granted him bail on the same day and ordered him to refrain from making any hate speeches and influencing any witnesses.
But George, who was a last-minute invitee at a temple festival at Vennala in Ernakulam, once again stirred a row by commenting against Haj subsidies while pointing out that Hindu pilgrims are made to pay even for bus tickets while heading to the Swami Ayyappan Temple in Sabarimala in the state.