KANYAKUMARI: Fr George Ponnaiah, a Catholic priest in Kanyakumari district, has been booked for delivering a hate speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, DMK ministers and others.
The BJP and Hindu outfits pressed for his arrest and detention under the National Security Act. The BJP would stage a protest on July 28.
The Panavilai parish priest was speaking at a meeting organised at Arumanai on Sunday evening. Videos of his speech were circulated in social media. In the videos, the priest is heard saying, “Ministers P K Sekar Babu (Hindu religious and charitable endowments) and T Mano Thangaraj (information technology and Padmanabhapuram MLA) should not forget that they did not get any Hindu votes. They should not forget that their victory was the alms given by Christians and Muslims by casting their votes.” The priest also charged Nagercoil MLA M R Gandhi (BJP) as the prime accused in the 1982 Mandaikadu religious riots that claimed seven lives. He attacked the Prime Minister and Union home minister and went on to say that even BJP and RSS loyalists were ashamed to name their children after those two leaders. Ponnaiah was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He was also booked under Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) of the IPC and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act for conducting the meeting in violation of Covid-19 norms.
On Friday, the priest released a video alleging that his “speech was edited and circulated in the social media. My words were twisted as if I hurt and degraded the sentiments of Hindu brothers and sisters. In case our speech had been that way, I wholeheartedly apologise on behalf of the meeting.”
