Kerala High Court on Monday granted interim anticipatory bail to senior politician and BJP ally P.C. George who has been booked in a hate speech case.

The single bench of Justice P. Gopinath imposed a condition restraining George from making any inflammatory remarks.

The leader of Kerala Janapaksham (Secular), a small party with no representation in the Assembly, George was booked by Ernakulam police for hate speech against the Muslim community.

He was booked under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups of people) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage the religious feelings).

The former MLA had approached the high court after a sessions court in Ernakulam on Saturday rejected his plea for anticipatory bail, paving the way for his arrest in the case.

The high court bench granted him bail after considering the fact that the sections he had been charged with were punishable with less than three years in jail and he was not a flight risk.

A seven-time MLA, who used to be part of the Congress-led United Democratic Front as a leader of Kerala Congress (M), George is on bail in a similar hate speech case registered in Thiruvananthapuram in which he was arrested.