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After being released on bail in a hate speech case, Kerala senior politician PC George defended his controversial remarks and claimed that his arrest was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's "Ramadan gift for terrorist Muslims."
The former chief whip of the state Assembly and long-time MLA was arrested on Sunday, 1 May, for communal and inflammatory speech against Muslims. He got conditional bail in the afternoon.
While speaking to the media, outside the magistrate’s residence after being granted bail, PC George said that he still stood by what he said.
"I will say one thing very clearly. I stand firm on all things I have said. If I ever said something wrong, I never hesitated to withdraw it. My speech was at the venue of the Hindu Maha Sammelan," he said.
Ramadan concludes in Kerala on Monday, as Eid will be celebrated on Tuesday, 3 May, in the state.
PC George secured conditional bail on Sunday afternoon, as the politician told the media after his release, and the magistrate had directed him not to influence the media, generate hatred, or get involved in controversial matters.
Early on Sunday, officials from the Fort police station in Thiruvananthapuram took George into custody from his residence at Erattupetta in Kottayam for his remarks at the Hindu Maha Sammelan.
He even said that "tea laced with drops causing impotence" was sold in Muslim-run restaurants to turn people infertile in a bid to seize control of the country – a claim which has been established as fake multiple times in the past.
It is not the first time PC George has found himself in a controversy.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, no political party wished to give him a ticket and he contested the elections as an Independent candidate. George lost the Assembly elections from Poonjar in 2021.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
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