Sexual Assault Case in Kerala; senior politician P.C. George arrested. George has been charged under IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 354 (a) (sexual harassment).
P C George, an elderly politician and seven-time former solon, was arrested on Saturday, allegedly on the basis of a sexual assault complaint filed by a woman who is also an indicted in the state’s 2013 solar panel scandal.
Saturday’s arrest comes two months after George, 70, was held and released on bail for hate speech. It came while he was being questioned by police in another case, lodged by former minister K T Jaleel.
Professing that his arrest is part of a conspiracy by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, George told the media, “He (Vijayan) has a grudge because I didn’t give any statement against former CM Oommen Chandy in the solar reproach.” “He(Vijayan) isn’t going to escape.
The Allegation
While the woman had before made allegations of sexual immaturity against several politicians in the state, which are under disquisition, George’s name didn’t figure in those complaints.
Last month, former state minister Jaleel contended that George had conspired with gold smuggling and reproached Swapna Suresh in her rearmost allegations against Vijayan, the LDF government in the state, and the plaintiff (Jaleel) himself.
On Saturday, Crime Branch police summoned George for questioning in their inquiry into the case registered on the basis of Jaleel’s complaint. When police informed the former solon about the contended sexual immunity complaint,
The woman had registered her complaint against George around noon, when police were questioning him.
Police in Thiruvananthapuram arrested George later under IPC Sections 354 (assault or felonious force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 354-A (offence of sexual importunity).
According to the FIR lodged on the basis of the woman’s complaint, George had summoned her to the government guest house in Thiruvananthapuram on February 10 under the rationale of agitating the gold smuggling reproach and allegedly outraged her modesty.
George’s son, Shone George, a member of the quarter panchayat in Kottayam, said the expert leader was arrested because the state “government wanted to divert attention from the most recent allegations related to the gold smuggling reproach”. He said, “The government also wants to divert media attention from the explosive attack on the CPI (M) state headquarters.” We’ll fight this fairly. ”
The woman had already been made a substantiation in the conspiracy case by police and had given a statement before the court under Section 164 CrPC.
She had earlier made analogous allegations against several Congress leaders, including former CM Chandy, AICC general clerk K C Venugopal, Lok Sabha MP Hibi Eden, Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K Mani and some others.
They’ve denied the allegations.
After the police didn’t deal with her complaint, she moved a fresh solicitation to CM Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking a CBI inquiry into her allegations. She had also dropped the name of Jose K. Mani, who had also moved to the LDF.
