The Kerala High Court Friday refused to grant anticipatory bail to BJP leader P C George in hate speech case saying he had violated bail conditions of a similar case of 2022.
Referring to a bail order of 2022, Justice P V Kunhikrishnan said if the court were to grant bail in these such cases, it would send out “a wrong message to society”. In the 2022 case, the court had directed the seven-time former legislator not to make any statement that could amount to promoting religious enmity or outraging religious sentiments.
While participating in a TV channel discussion on January 5 this year, George said: “All Muslims in India are terrorists and communalists. Not a single non-terrorist Muslim lives in India. Muslims are looters who plunder the country’s wealth. Lakhs of Hindus and Christians have been slaughtered by Muslims to create a Muslim state. All Indian Muslims should go to Pakistan. All Muslims are communal demons and scoundrels”.
Subsequently, Muhammed Shihab, a native of Erattupetta in Kottayam, filed a police complaint under sections 196(1)(a) and 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and also under Section 120(o) of Kerala Police Act against George.
The court said since the petitioner (George) had violated bail conditions of the previous case, “if granted bail in this case, people may think that, even if the bail conditions are violated, they will get anticipatory bail from the court of law. Such a message should not go to society”.
The court wondered if anticipatory bail should be granted in all cases, even if custodial interrogation of an accused is not necessary for the probe.
“If the maximum punishment that can be imposed for the offence alleged in a case is below seven years, whether a court of law can grant bail to an accused in a case without considering the allegation against the accused and the antecedents of the accused?” he said. “The antecedents of the accused and the seriousness of the allegations are also important aspects to be considered by the court. But, even if custodial interrogation is not required or necessitated, that itself cannot be a ground to grant anticipatory bail.”
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George had been a prominent leader of the regional Christian party Kerala Congress (M). He later quit and joined the BJP.
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